Located in the fertile plains of the rivers Tagus and Alberche, Talavera de la Reina has been famous for its ceramics for centuries. It is also the main town in the province of Toledo.

The city's most outstanding monuments are the bridge of Santa Catalina; the Archiepiscopal Palace, baroque in style and from the 17th century, and situated in Plaza del Pan, the nerve centre of life for Talavera's residents; or the Cervantes college, with a Renaissance façade. There are a great many religious buildings, outstanding among which are the collegiate church of Santa María la Mayor, from the late 12th century and erected in the Gothic-Mudejar style, with a magnificent façade and tower, a splendid high reredos and a beautiful cloister; the Mudejar church of Santiago, with Gothic influences; the basilica of the Virgen del Prado, a real museum of the famous glazed tiling of Talavera, built between the 16th and 17th centuries; and the Renaissance church of San Prudencio, from the 16th century.