The Visitors' Centre and Tourist Office in Candeleda, Avila, has been designed accounting for wheelchair users.

Candeleda is a charming village located in the province of Avila, in the middle of the Iberian Peninsula and south of Sierra de Gredos. It is about 160 kms from Madrid -some 1 and a half hour drive. Take the Extremadura highway and at km 148, take the AV-910 Oropesa-Candeleda road, the C-50l Madrid-Plasencia road and the N-502.

Because of the privileged placement and "microclimate" Candeleda is surrounded with beautiful palm and orange-trees, the Capra Hispanica's reserve, fountains, rivers and ravines of pure and clear waters: one can enjoy magnificent views of the mountains and the Tiétar river valley.

The district of Candeleda still retains small areas where the peppers used to make pimentón, or paprika, are grown, processed and sold. This district has a special climate suited to the farming of the "pimiento bellotero" and "vergel" varieties. The area's producers are all small scale farmers, who sell their product locally. There used to be twelve paprika factories in this area; "Pimentón" from Candeleda is well reputed and characterised by its fineness, highly intense aroma and vivid red colour.

A "sequero" is a building where peppers were hanged and dried before being taken to the mill. In the also well known "pimenton" producers area of La Vera, these buildings were usually made of red brick, but here, in Candeleda, they are made of wood and stone. Precisely it is an ancient sequero where the new Visitors' Centre has been just opened to the public. It houses too a Pimenton Hall where you can learn all about the processes of making pimenton (widely used in the Spanish cookery) from the variety of plants to the cutting, hanging, to the drying and smoking in the sequeros.

An old Sequero houses a recently opened Tourist Information Office. All premises in this new venue have been designed to be fully accessible for PMR and wheelchair users. There are curb cuts on the pavement surrounding the building. A little garden with several plants and tools used long ago by pimentón producers is by the main entrance: panels there have been placed at a convenient height accounting for wheelchair visitors . A concrete path leads to the main level entrance (all doors have no less than 80cm clear width). The area intended to work as tourist information desk features a low and high counter: you can get information and leaflets there about the village and the surroundings: where to eat, where to sleep, what to see. There are two tactile screens (one is set at the proper height to be used by wheelchair visitors) providing info about the process of manufacturing the local pimenton.

The staff in the Visitors' Centre/Tourist office is in charge of the guided visits inside the sequero, but panels and tags give good explanations if you'd like to visit the place on your own.

There are two adapted toilets in the Visitors' Centre/Tourist Office (featuring sliding doors, transfer bars, turning space.)

You'll find the old sequero, Visitors' Centre at present, driving into Candeleda along the road from Oropesa.

Ayuntamiento de Candeleda
Plaza Mayor, 1
05480 Candelada
Ávila
Tel: (+34)920 380 001
Fax: (+34) 920 380 033
www.ayto-candeleda.com

Rebecca Arce

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