2,900.
Plaza del Navarro 9, Tel: 925 45 00 02 .
Mon & Thu.
Virgen de Peñitas (8–10 Sep), Beato Alonso de Orozco (19 Sep).
Oropesa’s medieval and Renaissance splendour as one of Toledo’s satellite communities has left a charming old quarter at the centre of today’s small farming town. A circular Ruta Monumental starts from the massive, mainly 15th-century castle on the top of the hill. A Renaissance extension – thought to be the work of Juan de Herrera, co-architect of El Escorial – was added to the castle in the 16th century by the wealthy and influential Álvarez family. A large part of the castle has been converted into a parador.
The Ruta Monumental continues around the town, taking in a number of churches, convents, a small ceramics museum and the town hall which presides over the main square.
The area around Oropesa is excellent for buying handicrafts. Lagartera , just to the west of the town, is famous for the embroidery and lacework by the women in the village and El Puente del Arzobispo , 12 km (7 miles) south of Oropesa, is a good source of painted ceramics and esparto (grass-weaving) work. Ciudad de Vascos , further southeast, is a ruined 10th-century Arab city in splendid countryside around Azután.