The writer Camilo José Cela stated in his travel book Judíos, moros y cristianos, published in 1956, that “Guisando is perhaps the little town with the most beautiful views in all of Spain”. Six decades later, there are still many tourists who come to the small town of Avila to realize, with their own eyes and their cameras, the veracity of those letters by Cela. “It was a very accurate phrase and it has been a reference in the tourist promotion of Guisando”, explains the mayoress of the town, Ana Isabel Fernández Blázquez.
At the end of last June, Guisando was chosen by popular vote as the most beautiful town with less than a thousand inhabitants in Ávila in the contest The most beautiful town in Castilla y León, organized by Radio Televisión de Castilla y León with the sponsorship of Iberdrola. This population obtained almost 50% of the votes, accessing the second phase of the contest, whose voting phase will open again in October, with the aim of finding the most attractive location in the entire Community. Winning the victory in said contest “would be an enormous satisfaction, as well as a new instrument for the tourist development of the locality”, affirms the mayoress.
Pioneer town in tourism
Located in the south of the Sierra de Gredos, at an altitude of 760 meters, and declared a Historic, Artistic and Picturesque Site in 1974, Guisando finds its main economic activity in tourism. And it is that since the 60s when the camping of the town was opened, it has been receiving many fans of mountaineering.
“Guisando is one of the pioneer towns of tourism since that decade,” explains Fernández. “Many of the families that arrived then are deeply rooted in the town.” Accommodations of a diverse nature have been added to this campsite: hostels, rural tourism houses, and even private homes that are rented seasonally. Thus, as Fernández points out, the town has the capacity to accommodate approximately a thousand people.
“Many tourists come asking about Los Toros de Guisando and are a bit perplexed when we explain its location -in the municipality of El Tiemblo, almost 80 kilometers from the town of Guisando-. I say more”, explains Fernández.
Visitors -mainly from Madrid, 150 kilometers away- are seduced, of course, by the network of trails in Guisando, its pine forests, natural pools -such as Charco del Risquillo or Charco Verde-, the Casa del Parque El Risquillo -interpretation center of the natural environment-, its narrow streets with an Andalusian flavor and the imposing crest of Los Galayos -granite needles more than 2,000 meters high-. And thus, the word of mouth becomes strong, perpetuating with force and emphatic -like the cliffs of the place- what Cela already affirmed 60 years ago.
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