Daimiel, with about 18,000 inhabitants, is a town in the province of Ciudad Real, in Castilla-La Mancha, in the heart of the La Mancha plain. It is best known for Tablas de Daimiel national park, one of the Iberian peninsula's most important wetlands, but it is also a farming and wine town.
Tablas de Daimiel
The Tablas are a system of marshes and lagoons formed where the Guadiana and Cigüela rivers spill over the plain, also fed by groundwater. Declared a national park in 1973, they are part of the Mancha Húmeda biosphere reserve and a Ramsar site. They host ducks, herons, grebes, black-winged stilts and thousands of migratory birds, especially in winter and spring. Visitors follow wooden boardwalks and trails, with birdwatching hides and a visitor centre.
The park has suffered serious crises from aquifer pumping for irrigation, which long dried out the lagoons and even caused underground peat to ignite spontaneously. Water levels vary greatly from year to year: check the state of the lagoons before visiting.
The town
- The Gothic church of Santa María and the church of San Pedro.
- Plaza de España and traditional La Mancha houses.
- The District Museum, devoted to local archaeology and ethnography.
- The Motilla del Azuer, a few kilometres away, a Bronze Age fortification with a well reaching the water table, one of Europe's most unusual prehistoric sites.
Wine and food
Daimiel belongs to the La Mancha designation of origin, one of the world's largest by vineyard area. Food: pisto manchego, gazpacho manchego, migas, Manchego cheese, gachas and game.
Around and getting there
The town of Almagro, with its 17th-century Corral de Comedias and classical theatre festival, about 25 km away, the Ruidera lakes and the windmills of Campo de Criptana and Consuegra, linked to Don Quixote. Daimiel is about 30 km from Ciudad Real, with its AVE station, and is served by regional trains and buses.