Mota del Cuervo is La Mancha as you imagined it. A line of windmills stands on the ridge above the town — seven of them, white-walled and dramatic against the Manchego sky. These are the molinos de viento that Cervantes made famous (though he set the scene at nearby Campo de Criptana). Some of the windmills are original; others have been restored.
The town below is pleasant, with a good Plaza Mayor and enough services to make it a comfortable stop — bars, restaurants, shops, and accommodation. The Cueva del Fraile is a restaurant built into caves beneath the town, worth seeking out.
The windmills are best visited in the late afternoon light, when the white walls glow orange against the darkening sky.
The windmills of La Mancha were built from the 16th century onward to grind the wheat that grew on the meseta. Cervantes immortalized them in Don Quixote (1605), where the knight-errant mistakes them for giants. Whether Cervantes had these specific windmills in mind is debated, but the image has defined La Mancha ever since.
