Help building the largest human-edited directory of the web Suggest URL - Open Directory Project - Become an editor

directopedia.org uses links and structure from dmoz Open Directory Project.
The contents has been generating using technology developed by scientec.

Comunidad Autónoma de
Castilla-La Mancha

Capital	Toledo
Area  – Total  – % of Spain	Ranked 3rd 79 463 km² 15,7%
Population  – Total (2003)  – % of Spain  – Density	Ranked 9th  1 782 038  4,3%  22,43/km²
Demonym  – English  – Spanish	Castilian-Manchego  castellano-manchego
Statute of Autonomy	August 16, 1982
ISO 3166-2	CM
Parliamentary representation  – Congress seats  – Senate seats	20  2
President	José María Barreda Fontes (PSOE)
Gobierno de Castilla-La Mancha

Castile-La Mancha (Spanish Castilla-La Mancha) is an autonomous community of Spain.

Castile-La Mancha is bordered by Castile and León, Madrid, Aragon, Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia, and Extremadura.

Castile-La Mancha is composed of the provinces of Toledo, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara, and Albacete.

The capital of Castile-La Mancha is Toledo.

Castile-La Mancha was formerly grouped with the province of Madrid into New Castile ("Castilla la Nueva"), but with the advent of the modern Spanish system of semi-autonomous regions (las autonomías), it was separated due to great economic disparity between the capital and the remaining New-Castilian provinces.

It is in this province where the famous Spanish novel Don Quijote by Cervantes takes place. Although La Mancha is a windswept, battered plateau (manxa means parched earth in Arabic; hence mancha is Spanish for stain) it remains a symbol of the Spanish culture with its sunflowers, windmills, Manchego cheese, and, of course, El Quijote.

La Mancha's history has been tumultuous. Going as far back as the Muslim domination of the Iberian peninsula, La Mancha was the center of many battles between Christian and Muslim forces. Moreover, this region saw many a struggle in the 14th and 15th century with the unifaction of Castile and Aragon in 1492 under Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand.

Administrative structure of Spain
Autonomous Communities: Andalusia | Aragon | Asturias | Balearic Islands | Basque Country | Canary Islands | Cantabria | Castile–La Mancha | Castile–Leon | Catalonia | Extremadura | Galicia | Madrid | Murcia | Navarre | La Rioja | Valencia
Autonomous Cities: Ceuta | Melilla
Plazas de soberanía menores: Islas Chafarinas | Peñón de Alhucemas | Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera

This article is based on the article "Castile-La Mancha" from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License. Here you find the list of authors of this article. The article can only edited within Wikipedia. Edit this article in Wikipedia.