Theme Week Castile-La Mancha – Cuenca
Friday, 25 April 2014 - 01:00 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union General , UNESCO World Heritage
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Plaza Mayor © flickr.com – M.Peinado/cc-by-2.0
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Cuenca is the capital of the
province of Cuenca . Cuenca is located across a steep spur, whose slopes descend into deep gorges of the
Júcar and
Huécar rivers. It is divided into two separate settlements: the “new” city is situated south-west of the old one, which is divided by the Huécar course.
Built over a rock above the Huecar River gorge in the 15th century, Las Casas Colgadas are the only remaining samples of this type of building which was common in this city a long time ago. Hanging Houses can be considered the most famous civil buildings in Cuenca. They house a restaurant and the Museum of Abstract Arts and they serve as the background of millions of photos made from the bridge of San Pablo.
Convento de las Carmelitas Descalzas © flickr.com - M.Peinado/cc-by-2.0
The first decades of the 20th century were as turbulent as in other regions of Spain. There was poverty in rural areas, and the Catholic Church was attacked, with monks, nuns, priests and a bishop of Cuenca, Cruz Laplana y Laguna, being murdered. During the
Spanish Civil War Cuenca was part of the republican zone (
Zona roja or: “the red zone”). It was taken in 1938 by General Franco’s troops. During the post-war period the area suffered a major economic decline, causing many people to migrate to more prosperous regions, mainly the
Basque Country and
Catalonia , but also to other countries such as Germany. The city started to recover slowly from 1960 to 1970, and the town limits went far beyond the gorge to the flat surroundings.
Within recent decades the city has experienced a moderate growth in population and economy, the second one especially due to the growing tourism sector, and both of them fuelled by improvements in road and train communications. Cuenca has strongly bet on culture and as a result of this it was declared a World Heritage site in 1996. In the recent years, new cultural infraestructures such as the municipal Concert Hall or the Science Museum place Cuenca in a good position to apply for the title of European Capital of Culture in 2016.
Here you can find the complete
Overview of all Theme Weeks .
Read more on
Cuenca ,
spain.info – Cuenca and
Wikipedia Cuenca . Learn more about the
use of photos . To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (
Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State -
Weather report by weather.com -
Global Passport Power Rank -
Travel Risk Map -
Democracy Index -
GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank -
Global Competitiveness Report -
Corruption Perceptions Index -
Press Freedom Index -
World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index -
UN Human Development Index -
Global Peace Index -
Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index ). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at
comment@wingsch.net . Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.
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