Manzanares

Manzanares grew beside a castle in the plains of La Mancha, within the lands of the military Order of Calatrava. The settlement is documented in a boundary agreement of 1239, and became an important commandery: the order's commander lived in the castle and administered its revenues. In 1487 the Catholic Monarchs became administrators of the order, linking its estates more closely to royal authority. A Discalced Carmelite convent was founded in the town in 1587. The castle was altered over the centuries, including the construction of a large granary in the eighteenth century. War returned to Manzanares during the Peninsular War: French troops destroyed the Carmelite convent in 1808, and the castle was temporarily adapted for defence. In 1836, during the First Carlist War, it again served as a small fort. These changes left the town's medieval military-order inheritance embedded in a landscape of later religious, economic and military uses.