About Puertollano
Puertollano is the city where Carmen was born and grew up. In Spain it is the tradition to hold the wedding in the birth-city of the girl, so Puertollano is the city where our wedding will take place. In Puertollano (pronounced pu-ærto-jano), lives also most of Carmen’s family, here among her parents. On this page you can read some background information about the city Puertollano.
Puertollano is located 239 km south of Madrid – a distance, which is by the super rapid AVE train, is covered in one hour. The city belongs under the region Castilla-La Mancha which probably is best know as the area from where Don Quixote, with his good servant Sancho Panza, drew out to fight against windmills and what else they met on their journeys.
Puertollano is a middle-sized industrial city and with its approximately 50.000 inhabitants it is more or less the same size as Randers. In the old days the major industry were mining. Today the city is most known for housing Spain’s largest refinery, which is responsible for 19 percent of Spain’s total oil-production. For one and half a year ago an accident on the refinery, where an oil-tank exploded, drew the city on the world map. The accident caused the life of six peoples and it took 400 firemen more than two days to gain control over the fire.
Beside that, Puertollano is a nice and normally quite and peaceful city. The center of the city is defined by a long “paseo” (a kind of walkingstreet without shops), with fountains, chestnut trees and benches. In the one end of the paseo lies a spring called “Fuente Agria”, from where carbonic acid water springs out. The water has won international prices and is most certainly worth a taste. In the other end of the paseo lies the church “Parraquia Virgen De Gracia” – it is here that the wedding will take place.
Every Saturday along the year there is a big marked in the outskirt of the city. Here you can buy everything from clothes and shoes to food, nuts and candy. If possible, you should give yourself the experience to visit such a traditional Spanish marked. It is not overwhelming what Puertollano besides of this can show of sights, but most of the Danish visitors will probably be happy to hear that in Puertollano, as in every other city in Spain, there can be found a bar on every street corner. Here you can take a rest and enjoy a cup of coffee, a glass of wine or a beer. In Puertollano drinks are, as it is also normal in other parts of Spain, served with “tapas”. Tapas is a small snack and can consist of all from olives and cheeses to small sandwiches – always worth an experience.