Audioguides Albacete

Albacete takes its name from the Arabic al-Basit, meaning the plain, and the description still fits: the city sits at about 680 meters in the heart of the Castilla-La Mancha plateau, surrounded by the wheat fields, vineyards, and windmills of Don Quixote country. The cutlery trade has been documented here since at least the 15th century, when guild records first mention knifemakers, and the railway's arrival in the 19th century supercharged the industry into a regional economic force that still produces blades of genuine quality.

The Museo de la Cuchilleria, opened in 2004 in a green-tiled Gothic building called La Casa del Hortelano, is one of the more unusual museums in Spain, displaying everything from medieval daggers and ceremonial swords to contemporary folding knives.

The shops around it sell the real article: finely made knives and scissors that are still manufactured in Albacete workshops to exacting standards. The city's annual fair, held in September and with origins in the 14th century, is one of the largest in Castilla-La Mancha and draws visitors from across the south of Spain for a week of bullfighting, concerts, and market stalls.