Lying in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, Castilla-La Mancha is encircled by another seven of Spain’s autonomous communities: to the North and northwest by Castilla y León, Madrid to the northwest, Aragón to the northeast, Valencia to the East, Murcia to the southeast, Andalucía to the South, and in the West, by Extremadura.

Covering an area of 79,462 square kilometres, it is the third largest of Spain’s autonomous communities, and makes up 15.7% of Spanish territory.

The latest official population figure for the region as a whole (from the January 2006 census) is 1,932, 261, with figures for the five provinces: Albacete 387,658, Ciudad Real 506,864, Cuenca 206,616, Guadalajara 213,505, and Toledo, 615,618.
Toledo is the regional capital.

The regional government is known as the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha, and the regional parliament as Las Cortes de Castilla-La Mancha.

Castilla-La Mancha as it is today was born on 10th August 1982, when the Spanish Congress approved its first regional Statute, granting autonomy under the terms of the 1978 Spanish Constitution.
That first Statute established only limited autonomy for the region, until it came of age in 1997, with the second reform of the regional statute, unanimously approved by Congress, extending responsibilities and its level of autonomy in line with the ‘historic’ regions of Spain.

The first pre-autonomous government was set up in 1978, led by Antonio Fernández-Galiano. Jesús Fuentes Lázaro became President of the first post-autonomous government, with his appointment by the Junta de Comunidades in December 1982.

The first regional election held in 1983 gave an absolute majority to the Socialist Party, and José Bono, who was 20 years later to become Defence Minister in Spain’s Socialist government led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, was invested as the first elected President of Castilla-La Mancha.
He remained at the helm of the regional government until 2004, when he resigned to take up his position in the Cabinet.

His successor, José María Barreda Fontes, the Socialists’ General Secretary for Castilla-La Mancha since 1997 and Bono’s Vice-President since 1999, led PSOE to victory again in the 2007 regional election, holding onto the Socialists’ absolute majority.
PSOE, however, dropped three seats in the regional parliament, with the Partido Popular in opposition gaining three seats on their result in the 2003 election.

The shield for Castilla La Mancha