1. Priego de Córdoba (Córdoba)
Priego is one of the most beautiful and well preserved towns in the province of Córdoba. The old town is known as the La Villa neighborhood and has similarities with the old part of Córdoba capital. A labyrinth of labyrinthine and narrow streets, of gratifying shadows that help to flee from the lead sun that melts the Andalusian countryside at midday, of windows full of pots and walls that bulge under the weight of lime hands and hands. Priego also has a castle, but instead of being on top of a rock it is in the plain, in the middle of the town. And it also has magnificent buildings from the 16th century, its golden age, such as that of the Royal Butchers, a solid stone building with a striking spiral staircase.
2. Rubielos de Mora (Teruel)
One of the most famous monumental enclosures in the Teruel mountain. That's right. The entire old town is a catalog of civil and ecclesiastical buildings of great architectural value and perfectly restored, ranging from the Renaissance to the Baroque period. The Town Hall, a summary of the best techniques of the Aragonese Renaissance of the 16th century, houses in its inner courtyard a fish market supported by Tuscan columns. Inside the intramural enclosure is also Santa María la Mayor, the main temple of Rubielos, a Baroque construction with a single nave. It has an interesting doorway that closes the baptismal font, an excellent example of the forging work that made Rubielos famous.
3. Colombres (Asturias)
Indian architecture is one of the hallmarks of Asturias. It refers to the construction style used by the Asturians who emigrated to America and returned enriched. Many of them built palaces with influences from the other side of the Atlantic in their home villages to, on the one hand, show their neighbors that they had succeeded, and on the other, appease the morriña of those distant lands to which they came to be poor and who they had been treated so well. So everyone has a couple of palms on the doorstep. One of the towns with the most Indian dwellings is Colombres. In one of them, La Quinta Guadalupe, with its characteristic blue façade, the Indianos Archive was installed in 1987, a museum and research center on Asturian emigration to America in the 19th and 20th centuries. It reflects, like few others, the luxury and magnificence that those enriched neighbors on the other side of the Atlantic brought to their home towns.
4. Tudanca (Cantabria)
Although he was born in Valladolid, José María de Cossío, writer, polygraph and author of the most complete bullfighting treatise, adored the family manor house in a small town in the Cantabrian mountains called Tudanca. She invited her friends from the Generation of '27: Gerardo Diego, Alberti, Lorca ... No one would deny her good taste. Tudanca is one of the most genuine and authentic mountain towns in Cantabria. And it is also not a cardboard-stone set, like others. It is still a living place, which proudly displays its mountain architecture - just as they are humble stables or hidalgas emblazoned large houses -, its cows and its countrymen with berets. Today, José María de Cossío's house is a museum where his huge library is preserved.
5. Alcalá de Júcar (Albacete)
To visit this mountain town, you have to leave your car on the other side of the bridge that spans the Júcar and go on foot into one of those labyrinth towns that has managed to preserve its historical legacy and above all, its medieval urban planning. Alcalá is not a place of great monuments or singular buildings. On the contrary. Its charm lies in the simple, in the popular. In its print perched on the sickle of the Júcar river, in one of the purest and most unknown corners of the La Manchuela region. It has remains of a castle of Arab origin, a baroque church, like all. Its barely 700 inhabitants have always been dedicated to agriculture, although this invention called rural tourism has transformed the town: dozens of visitors come every weekend in search of their wild surroundings and activities in the two rivers of clean water in the area: Júcar and Cabriel himself.
6. Brihuega (Guadalajara)
Located in the heart of Alcarria, Brihuega is a monumental and charming town. So much so that he was chosen by someone as traveling and globetrotting as the great Manu Leguineche to spend the last years of his life. From Brihuega stands out the Peña Bermeja castle, visible from any corner of the town. Although a good part of the town develops underground. Brihuega is pierced by kilometers of underground passageways, which the local people used to house wines and viands as a cellar, a safe and fresh place. On the surface, the church of Santa María and the old cloth factory of Carlos III stand out in the same way, a large round-plan building that preserves a Versailles garden around it. A beautiful place to "die of love in adolescence", as Cela wrote.
7. Covarrubias (Burgos)
Covarrubias is one of the most important towns in the early history of Castilla. The town is linked to that of the Infanta Doña Urraca, granddaughter of Count Fernán González, who was abbess and owner of the town during the 11th century. The city has changed a lot since then, but the harmony of its streets and the pleasant uniformity of the Castilian architecture that its houses show off continue to attract travelers. It is the same charm that captivated the medieval nobles, bishops and monarchs who built beautiful manor mansions in Covarrubias. A walk through the current Covarrubias, out of the burdens and overcrowding of the bridges and the summer (it is one of the leading tourist destinations in the province of Burgos) is an immersion in the peace and quiet of an authentic Castilian village from the Middle Ages .
8. Hervás (Cáceres)
In addition to being one of the towns that has best known how to preserve the popular architecture of the Caceres mountain, Hervás is worth a visit for its famous Jewish quarter, a labyrinth of fresh and twisted streets where its important Hebrew community resided. The traditional construction style of cantilevered balconies and exposed wooden beam facades has survived in the Hervás Jewish quarter like nowhere else in the Extremaduran highlands. Some stately houses also stand out in Hervás, such as the Dávilas palace or the Town Hall, a baroque building that was previously the infirmary of a Franciscan convent.
9. Combarro (Pontevedra)
Although in the Galician estuaries the ugliness took over the architecture and the towns and cities grew without much order, there are still charming corners where you can appreciate how these coastal villages were. And one of the best examples is this small town on the Pontevedra estuary, where dozens of granaries and crossroads are preserved, which overlook the Rúa del Mar, the main street, and the estuary on the other; many rise on the living rock. There are no more towns in all the Baixas estuaries as authentic as Combarro, that's why it was declared a Historic-Artistic Site. A place to stroll, delight in these genuinely Galician constructions and end the morning in a tavern tasting mussels, razor clams and cockles from the estuary. Nearby is the monastery of San Xoan de Poio, with a beautiful Renaissance cloister - the cloister of the Processions - and a beautiful setting where it smells of the sea.
10. Laguardia (Álava)
A fortified town, walled, with narrow streets where the stone still rules. A subsoil drilled by kilometers of tunnels that served and serve as cellars, some of them drilled six meters deep. And an environment of vineyards drawn perfectly on soft hills where some of what will later become the best and most expensive wines of the La Rioja designation of origin take shape. This is Laguardia, the emblematic town of La Rioja Alavesa. Inside the walled enclosure, the church of Santa María de los Reyes and its polychrome portico stand out; the abbey tower, which still dominates the outlines, and the Plaza Mayor. Essential on a sunny day, sit here in it to drink a Rioja wine watching the jota dance to the chimes of the carillon.
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