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Home , Abengibre, Alatoz, Albacete, Balsa de Ves, Casas de Ves, Cenizate

La de , 2017

Activity report

1 General concept Within the communities that form Wikimedia, there has been for years the figure of Wiki Takes. It consists on taking pictures of a place to be used in all wikimedia projects, uploading them to Wikimeia Commons and then using them in the Wikipedias, Wikivoyage and other projects. To this activity of taking images can be added the one of editing in the projects themselves. Spanish local chapter, Wikimedia España, has carried out several of these activities in different places of the Spanish geography. Until now we had limited ourselves to small places, sometimes as small as a building, in other cases extended to an entire . On the other hand, Wikimedia España supports the initiative No Municipality of without a Photo, which seeks to have at least one representative image of each municipality in the . When it started almost 25% of the were not visible in Commons. The figure has been reduced to 15% but still high. In addition, these missing municipalities tend to be Carcelén had just two pictures in Commons. concentrated in specific comarcas. It is therefore appropriate to propose activities at the regional level. This activity combines the Wiki Takes structure with the comarcal scope..

Why la Manchuela La Manchuela de Albacete comprises an area of 1750 km2, populated over 28 000 people in 24 municipalities. Its geographic definition is recent and its administrative reflection -Mancomunidad de la Manchuela- includes , a Cuenca municipality which we have left out of the activity due to simplification needs. There is also the Denomination of Origin La Manchuela, for wine, whose geography is somewhat more extensive. Of its 24 municipalities, seven did not have - as of January 21, 2017 – any representative photographs in Commons. In fact six of them had none at all, while the seventh -Mahora- had only one picture of Our Lady of Grace. Five municipalities had a single photo and another five only two photos each. In addition to this, even municipalities with many photos -Casas-Ibáñez being The Manchuelan plain in , one of the the most pointed case- suffered from municipalities with n photo in Wikimedia the lack of images of some or even Commons. many of its most significant places. Although la Manchuela de Albacete was not the worst represented comarca in Commons, it lacked enough images to raise our interest in going there and taking them. In addition, the land is generally flat and has an easy access from both

2 and . The number of municipalities is manageable. It should be remembered that we had never tried an activity of this extension before, so it was not only a question of executing, but also of learning in order to engage more complex areas.

La Manchuela de Albacete and its municipalities The municipalities that form the comarca are as follows: Photos (Commons Municipality Area (km2) Population 21/01/17) 30,77 782 0 63,86 610 1 Alborea 72,05 754 2 Alcalá del Júcar 146,82 1250 169 76,35 172 0 Carcelén 75,36 546 2 Casas de Juan Núñez 88,98 1382 2 125,09 666 13 Casas-Ibáñez 103,22 4658 700 (aprox) 63,26 1174 1 108,29 1901 0 Golosalvo 69,18 114 0 67,97 400 1 29,74 275 0 73,31 4724 145 Mahora 108,14 1422 0 23,82 555 1 42,26 524 0 Pozo-Lorente 80,96 415 2 70,76 1991 1 57,54 59 28 127,99 4106 74 18,82 115 2 34,84 238 7 Total 1759,38 28833 1151

The comarca is a plain on the northeastern corner of the of Albacete. It also comprises two deep valleys; the Hoces del Cabriel the make the limit with the Land of Valencia, and the very narrow Júcar river valley, that crosses the comarca west to east from Valdeganga. National road N-322, which links Requena with Albacete, crosses the plain north of Júcar river, from Villatoya to Mahora, passing through Alborea, Casas-Ibáñez, Fuentealbilla and Golosalvo. Between this road and the are Motilleja, Madrigueras, Navas de Jorquera, Cenizate and Villamalea. Regional road CM-332, which connects Ayora with Albacete, serves the southern part of the comarca: Carcelén, Alatoz, Villavaliente, Pozo-Lorente and Casas de Juan Núñez are on this route or its immediate vicinity.

3 The central part of the is marked by the Júcar river canyon. On the western part of the river route is where Valdeganga, Jorquera, La Recueja and Alcalá del Júcar are placed, all four by the river bank, while Abengibre lays few kilometers to the north. The eastern part is known as Tierra de Ves –which includes the present municipalities of Balsa de Ves, Casas de Ves and Villa de Ves- whose administrative centers are on the northern plain but with their municipal crossing the valley.

Elements of interest As a norm, we make lists of the things we find interesting to photograph. Those lists include some items that are found on all municipalities, but also things that can only be found in some places or that are unique to a given location. Some of the things we wanted photographed were monuments –both architectural and natural- but also items that were not monumental in any sense, in some cases they weren’t even beautiful. Among the things we wanted to photograph in all cases there were halls, churches, schools, Guardia Civil barracks, , theaters, washhouses, bridges, and agricultural cooperatives. As usual, we also looked for manhole covers -sewer, water or electricity supplies and the like- as long as they bear the name or coat of arms of the population. Construction of the railway line from Baeza to was started but never Cubas is a in the municipality of Jorquera. It is on a narrow sector of the Júcar valley, which finished. It would have crossed the is a listed natural protection area. territory and there are many remnants of it scattered along several Manchuelan municipalities. Castles were a particular problem in this event. At first we were interested in all of them, but in Manchuela there is a castle –the one in Alcalá del Júcar- that had already been extensively photographed. As we were trying to focus on the unrepresented parts of the comarca, we assigned this castle a very low priority. Another peculiar case was Casas- Ibáñez. There were already more than 700 images in Commons, mostly from s Panoramio. Although many of these photographs are interesting for various reasons, they posed serious classification problems and somethimes did not represent all the elements that were sought. So in Casas- Ibáñez there were some elements that were sought and others that were not. La Gila. There were many photos of Alcalá del Júcar The same thing happened with but none at all from this part of the municipality.

4 Villamalea and Madrigueras, where we were looking for more specific pictures. In general terms, items that were already well represented in Wikimedia Commons were not the target of this activity or some conditions were asked (for instance, there were pictures of the exterior of the church of Alcalá del Júcar, so we asked for photos of the inside). With all of these premises in mind, a list of 247 items was made. Municipality Proposed targets Assigned points Abengibre 9 48 Alatoz 9 22 Alborea 11 24 Alcalá del Júcar 19 39 Balsa de Ves 8 42 Carcelén 13 33 Casas de Juan Núñez 8 21 Casas de Ves 12 27 Casas-Ibáñez 12 17 Cenizate 11 23 Fuentealbilla 17 70 Golosalvo 9 42 Jorquera 15 41 La Recueja 9 42 Madrigueras 9 18 Mahora 11 52 Motilleja 4 10 Navas de Jorquera 7 32 Pozo-Lorente 5 11 Valdeganga 12 29 Villa de Ves 7 13 Villamalea 11 20 Villatoya 10 24 Villavaliente 9 15 Total 247 715

Preparation Contest concept The idea of the contest was to distribute the whole lot of target among three teams, so each one would have to take care of only a part of the job. As some things were more difficult to find and access than others, a point system was put in place. Most activities were measured in terms of points rather than number of items, and contestants took points quite seriously, so that many of the spots that seamed difficult in the beginning where in finally done. Making a list of objectives distributing them La Manchuela is not the kind of that fills pages in the tourist guides. Its main attractions are natural areas along the Cabriel and Júcar rivers and Alcalá del Júcar, hanging on the canyon side and with a very photogenic castle.

5 On the other hand the event was meant mainly with municipalities with no or few pictures in Commons. Based on these data, we began a list that was subsecuently expanded. We included churches, town halls, schools, cooperatives, hermitages, washhouses, bridges, cemeteries and Civil Guard barracks, as far as we could locate them. Some elements that appeared in the search process were incorporated, such as the constructions of the unfinished Baeza-Utiel railway, houses of culture, some theater... or things as local as a street named after Andres Our secret plans explained on a whiteboard. Iniesta in his hometown, Fuentealbilla. Also included were pedanías -it is a region with few of them- which are small hamlets that do not constitute a municipality on their own, and some places depopulated by emigration. With a provisional list and a map, we made three trips to prepare the event. The purpose of these visits was multiple. First of all, we needed to check general accessibility and cell phone cover. In the second place, accessibility to specific places was also checked. In fact want of the hermitages, Incarnation in

Casas de Ves, was removed from the Moranchel dam. No cell phone coverage here. And list because its access proved more it’s also where the road surface ends. difficult than firstly assumed. Northern access to the Hoces del Cabriel through Tamayo bridge was also discarded for similar reasons. An additional role of those surveillance trips was to take pictures of the most remote parts of the comarca so that we could focus more efficiently on the rest of it. A very important problem to solve during those early visits was food and lodging. We checked our hotel in place, looked for places to have lunch and supper. We popped into unexpected problems as restaurants in Casas- Ibáñez, were we wanted to lunch on Saturday, were booked solid as there was a local festival that day. We had time enough to redirect ourselves to Alborea.

Targets were bundled in eight groups, Lunch in Mahora. each of them forming a route. The

6 number of points and places on each route was calculated, so that they could be fairly distributed. Announcement Announcement was done during the first weeks of the year, and inscription was closed on February 15th. Such anticipation was a correct decision as it allowed lodging and the places to eat to be booked. These apparently trivial services turned out to be more complex than expected due to a combination of local holidays with a limited tourist infrastructure. Transportation As we had 1750 km2 of rural territory to cover, the use of cars was unavoidable. Three groups were formed. Each group was assigned two routes (for Saturday morning and Sunday morning). Two others routes were let to be done by all participants together, but they were finally carried out in small groups. We did not just take all rooms, common spaces were used too. Logistics There were several things that had to be paid due attention.

Lodging For practical reasons, a hotel with wifi in which all the participants could stay was required. That, which is no problem in a tourist area or a , con be a problem in La Manchuela. Most tourist lodging establishments are found into the Júcar valley trench, with bad cell phone connectivity and little Internet too. In addition not all have hotels. A temporary increase in demand can result in all hotel rooms being booked, as happened in Casas-Ibáñez. We had calculated that to minimize the distance driven, Casas-Ibáñez was then best place to be based in. That being impossible, we went to Alborea instead.

Meals All breakfasts and suppers we took in Alborea, as foreseen. That allowed us to use the evenings to upload some files, work on categories and other Reception desk, Wiki taken. editorial tasks. Saturday lunch was scheduled in Casas-Ibáñez, but was moved to Alborea. On Sunday we took lunch in Mahora, a place chosen because it was well connected to the end of the three routes of that morning.

7 Instruction kits and maps Participants were given instruction leaflets that included both general maps of the comarca and detailed local maps of all municipalities. While we were quite satisfied with those maps, and in fact they were of great practical use, they have two defects that should be fixed in future events. One is that they lack graphical scale. The other is that we used color balls to mark places, and when printed in black and white, some information went missing.

Local help opens doors, sometimes quite literally.

Execution

Groups and routes As explained, three groups were made and participants were assigned to those groups according to their abilities and the kind of routes they had to follow. The eight tours were distributed so that each group had one for Saturday and one for Sunday, leaving two more to make them in common in the early afternoon of both days. Instructions were also given to access the Hoces del Cabriel from the south through Casas-Ibáñez. The longer or more distant routes were assigned to groups with drivers accustomed to longer distances, while the routes that required more management with the local inhabitants were left for the group that knew more people in the zone. The first group was assigned the southern part of the territory, from

Casas de Juan Gil to Villavaliente, on Tamayo bridge was considered as an access to the Saturday, and from Pozo-Lorente to Hoces del Cabriel. It was ruled out by the difficulty involved. Distance and rain made that this part Motilleja on Sunday. wasn’t visited. This photo was taken during one preparation visit. A second group was assigned to do all in Alcalá del Júcar municipality on Saturday. On Monday they would go to La Recueja and then from Jorquera to Golosalvo.

Third team started Saturday in Fuentealbilla, going up to Navas de Jorquera, while on Monday they drove along the Júcar from Calzada de Vergara tp Puente Torres and then to Bormate.

8 Day to day On Friday afternoon we set up and explained the event. We occupied a small hotel, which was convenient since we could handle ourselves with a lot of flexibility, for example editing in the corridors and other common areas. We took breakfast at about 7:30 so that the starting points of our routes could be reached no later than 9:00. A forecast of travel and visit times was provided for each route, in addition to a list of the places that were expected to be photographed. The members of each group decided weather to distribute targets among them or go to all of them together. Meals were allways made together. Know as the cathedral of la Manchuela, the Nativity Then in the afternoon we made the church of Alborea marked the last destination each proposed small routes, but not as day. planned -all in a large group- but in smaller ones. After taking pictures in the afternoon, we went to the hotel to upload them. Unfortunately, wifi capacity was not as expected so we could only upload a handful of pictures. However we took the opportunity to explain the process and facilitate the categories, creating them in many cases. Dinners were also held in common and after them were uploaded more images, as wifi speed increased at night Plaza de , Mahora’s main square, with for some unknown reason. its church and the water castle. An easy to find place, very convenient to regroup after a long It has to be said that it rained during all morning tour of the Saturday and most of the Sunday. Rain has an effect on photo quality and renders some unpaved roads unusable.

What we got To the end of May, more than 1,800 photos had been uploaded as a result of this project. All municipalities were represented. Four fifths of the We try to reflect how places are. Not just proposed targets were pictured, all of monuments and churches. That is why we also asked for photos of churches, cooperatives or them more than once. Guardia Civil barracks, like this one in Madrigueras But results extend beyond Manchuela de Albacete itself. Photos were taken on the way to the event, covering municipalities in the province of Cuenca (mainly

9 from de Manchuela de Cuenca, but also from other comarcas), in other parts of the , and also villages in the municipalities of Requena and , both in the . Images taken in this wikitakes have been used to support Wikimedia España’s Second Pentathlon, that took place on May 20th. This year the pentathlon has been centered on Manchuelan themes, improving their coverage in many Wikimedia projects.

This event was not an end in itself. We This was a discovery event. For instance, little we wanted to check if the feasibility of the knew about the many small hydropower plants built by the Júcar in the first years of the 20th approach, so that it could be brought to century. other places. In that sense, we have passed the exam. Now we are determined to repeat the experience, taking into account that it takes a long time to prepare.

What we have learned • As usual in these field experiences, it is impossible to foresee everything, so flexibility is a must. • Maps have been a great help. But they have to be improved by adding graphic scales and better symbols. • The dimension of the event has been manageable. Working with three groups to cover the proposed territory has worked fine. • The contest was just an excuse, but it works because it allows placing the stress on the places that we really want pictured. We were surprised by all the trouble contestants took to reach some difficult places. • The total time calculations of each route have been correct in general, although in one case time was lacking, what was compensated by taking time from the afternoon activity. • Checking facts on the ground is important. And not everything is always where it was supposed to be. As in the hermitage in the upper part of Cubas, that just doesn’t exist. The image of St. George from the • On the other hand, there are things that are church of Golosalvo, by Salzillo, was in theory the most difficult not on the list but are interesting anyway. It is target to access. important to explain that to contestants as we did on Friday so that they don’t limit their scope to the list. • The main thing we have learned is that it can be done.

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Personal view The gestation of this project has been very long. I began with a general concept (wikitakes) that has been for a long time. Then a place had to be selected, in this case it was La Manchuela de Albacete. Deciding the place was not an easy task. I was trying to tackle one of Wikimedia’s content gaps that not for being little mentioned is any easier to remedy. The of Zamora and Cuenca have many photographs on Wikimedia Commons, eleven thousand and five thousand, respectively. In both cases some 30% of them belong to their capitals, both quite monumental towns that enjoy good coverage on tourist guides. In both provinces too, almost half their municipalities don’t have a single photo in Commons. I was looking for a place without pictures in Wikimedia Commons, with a sizeable extension, with items worth photographing and that wasn’t a monumental place. What I mean is that the local version of the Grand Canyon or the Vatican was not my interest. An additional condition was that it had to be manageable, close to home (in this case, la Manchuela is less than two hours drive from my hometown, Valencia) and of which I had at least some general knowledge. I had been to La Manchuela decades ago. And I had driven across it from tome to time. A lot of people from La Manchuela migrated to Valencia during the second half of the last century. A bit for this, a bit for that, also out of curiosity, and also because I got tired of seeing funny faces whenever I mentioned Mahora or Valdeganga (sometimes people seem more familiar with Mars than with places they can go there and back in the same morning) I decided for La Manchuela de Albacete.

11 When I had already decided the place, next step was calculating its center, not the geographical center but the place that had better access to all other parts of the comarca. Then checking real distances, reflecting local conditions (because sometimes 15 kilometers don’t make a difference and sometimes 800 meters can ruin your plans), and listing exactly the locations of what we really wanted to photograph (where to find schools, bridges, hermitages and all that stuff). At the end of this phase, I had a few spreadsheets of relative distances and lists of things to do and places to picture, somewhat resembling a letter to Santa Claus. At this point I convinced my wife, Montse, to join me. We started to look for accommodation and began to draw routes. And we tried to know who would come, because we needed to distribute the work to do. But that’s not all. Routes had to be checked as best as possible. We also tried to find information from official sources (four dozen emails were sent, no answers) and from people we knew. Because, as usual, local knowledge is very valuable, be it from participants like María José and Sofía, be it from the people that opened doors in many places, be it from the taxi- driver that warned us that unpaved roads would be impracticable if tractors had used them after the rain. This project includes many driving hours, some 800 kilometers inside the territory. And more of them outside: two participants came from Madrid and one from . Then we reached execution. That’s when you suddenly discover that it’s raining and there’s no use in complaining about it. You have to keep people happy, informed and focused. Two important contributions from Montse were capital at this point: documentation leaflet and point system contest. Working in groups was a great success: some pictures were taken thanks to people that were not photographers but were completely devoted to reach places. And that’s how we managed to do it.

User B25es

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License • Logo del Wiki Takes La Manchuela 2017 02.png Author: 19Tarrestnom65. CC-BY-SA 4.0 • Carcelén, vista noroeste desde ell Castillo.jpg Author: Malopez 21. CC-BY-SA 4.0 • Vista de golosalvo desde la carretera1.jpg Author: Djaam. CC-BY-SA 4.0 • Cubas localidades junto a la carretera.jpg Author: Santiagogarcia63. CC-BY-SA 4.0 • Iglesia Gila.jpg Author: DiazArocas. CC-BY-SA 4.0 • Planificación del Wiki takes La Manchuela 09.jpg Author: 19Tarrestnom65. CC-BY-SA 4.0 • Presa de Moranchel. Wiki takes La Manchuela 05.jpg Author: 19Tarrestnom65. CC-BY-SA 4.0 • Imágenes del Wiki takes 2017 La Manchuela 15.jpg Author: 19Tarrestnom65. CC-BY-SA 4.0 • Imágenes del Wiki takes 2017 La Manchuela 06.jpg Author: 19Tarrestnom65. CC-BY-SA 4.0 • Imágenes del Wiki takes 2017 La Manchuela 04.jpg Author: 19Tarrestnom65. CC-BY-SA 4.0 • Carcelén. Ermita, detalle llave y cerradura.jpg Author: Malopez 21. CC-BY-SA 4.0 • Hoces del Cabriel 08.jpg Author: 19Tarrestnom65. CC-BY-SA 4.0 • Alborea, Iglesia de La Natividad, desde el camino del cementerio.jpg Author: Malopez 21. CC-BY-SA 4.0 • Mahora, plaza La Mancha.jpg Author: Malopez 21. CC-BY-SA 3.0 • Cuartel.Madrigueras (7).jpg Author: Sanpilyagcar. CC-BY-SA 4.0 • Central Electrica.jpg Author: DiazArocas. CC-BY-SA 4.0 • San jorge del, Salzillo en la iglesia de Golosalvo.jpg Author: Djaam. CC-BY-SA 4.0 • Paisaje de la Manchuela Albaceteña 05.jpg Author: 19Tarrestnom65. CC-BY-SA 4.0 • Map data (c) OpenStreetMap (and) contributors, CC-BY-SA

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