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SPECIAL AUTUMN RURAL TOURISM
Autumn in Letur passes without fuss. You
feel the air descending from the mountains
with a new scent — a mixture of damp
earth, dry leaves and burning firewood.
In this corner of southwestern Albacete,
the landscape changes without losing its
character. The terraces turn ochre and
yellow, the murmur of water accompanies
every step, and the paths, once used by
shepherds and muleteers, now open as
an invitation to walk unhurriedly.
Letur preserves an ancient soul. Its old
town, declared a Historic-Artistic Site in
1983, maintains the medieval layout of
Muslim origin that is the best preserved
in the province. It takes only crossing the arch
that marks the entrance to the old quarter to
feel time slow down. The narrow streets, the
whitewashed houses and the covered passa-
geways lead travellers through a stone lab-
yrinth that breathes calm. In autumn, the bou-
gainvillea fade and the vines climb the walls,
dropping their golden leaves. Water, which has
shaped the character of the village for centu-
ries, still flows through fountains and irrigation
channels, reminding all who wander here that
Letur was— and still is—an enclave of fertile
orchards in the middle of the sierra.
From the viewpoints of the old town —the
Molatica viewpoint and the San Sebastián
viewpoint— the view drifts across ravines and
hills. On clear October days, the light seems
cleaner and the shadows longer. You can hear
distant cowbells, the crowing of a rooster and
the splash of water in the old washhouses.
These are everyday sounds that urban trave-
llers have almost forgotten, and here they are
preserved as part of the landscape.
A network of paths with history
The municipality covers more than 260 squa-
re kilometres of mountains, ravines and fertile
riverbanks. It is a territory that rises from 560
metres at the bottom of the valley to 1,400 me-
tres at the peaks, with views stretching across
the Sierra del Segura. The rugged terrain, cros-
sed by drovers’ roads and dry riverbeds, has
defined the lives of its inhabitants. The paths
that hikers now explore were, for centuries, the
arteries along which rural life flowed: livestock
herds travelled them on their seasonal migra-
tions, and along them oil, grain and firewood
were transported, linking the scattered hamlets
tucked between the hills.
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