Properties in Albacete

If you’re looking for properties or Villas in Albacete Spain, or looking to rent a property in Albacete short or long term, we hope this local information for living in Albacete helps.

Albacete is a city and municipality in southeastern Spain, 258 km southeast of Madrid, the capital of the province of Albacete in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. The municipality had a population of c. 169,700 in 2009.

The city has been known as a center for the manufacture of fine daggers, scissors, and knives. An assembly plant of Eurocopter, a subsidiary of EADS, began operation in 2007.

Although Albacete has never been considered a city with an industrial tradition, the industrial area in the city, known as Polígono de Campollano, has recently been expanded as it is one of the biggest industrial parks in Spain. The local government is pushing to make Albacete a logistic center in the southeastern part of Spain.

Albacete, together with Ciudad Real, has one of the main campuses of the University of Castilla la Mancha. It is estimated that between 9,000 and 10,000 students study at any of the schools that the regional university currently has in the city.

Albacete is not known as a tourist destination, but its sights include the cathedral and the Museo de Albacete.

During the Spanish Civil War, it was the headquarters and training camp of the International Brigades, whose political commissar was André Marty, also known as the "Butcher of Albacete".

Albacete is home to the soccer team Albacete Balompié.

Around the first quarter of the 14th century, in the time of the famous writer Don Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena, who was the governor of Murcia and, therefore the Lord of these lands, which were to become later the Marquisate of Villena, the village began to develop and its population to increase. In 1375 it was considered a borough and became independent of Chinchilla, and a century later, in 1476, the Catholic Monarchs rewarded Albacete for supporting the Crown by granting it a licence to hold a market once a week.

During the Revolt of the Comuneros (1520–22), after initial protests, Albacete supported the new emperor Charles V who, in 1526, granted the feudal estate of the town to his wife, the Empress Isabella of Portugal. During this period, building started on the church of San Juan Bautista (St John the Baptist), which was later to become a cathedral.

Albacete is located in a strategic position between Madrid and the east coast of Spain and its agricultural wealth led to the growth of the borough during the next few centuries until Philip V granted permission for an annual fair (1710). This fair was later held in an enclosure built by Charles III (1783).

The railway reached Albacete in 1855, and the Madrid‑Alicante route passed through the town. Later, Albacete was also connected by rail to Cartagena. In 1862, Isabel II granted Albacete the title of town. Street electric lighting was inaugurated in 1888, thus being the first capital of a province in Spain with electric lighting in its streets.