Complejo Lagunar del río Moscas micro-reserve

Lakes formed by subsidence

Fuentes lives up to its name, meaning springs: it has many, including the source of the River Moscas. That water running underground dissolves gypsum, and the ground subsides into dolines, called torcas in Cuenca. There are eleven, and nine hold water all year: to the north, Mohorte and Las Zomas; to the south, the five Ojos de la Corva, Laguna Negra and Laguna de los Cedazos, the largest. In such soft ground the process is rapid: the most recent doline, in the Ojos de la Corva, opened in 2009.

Life in the water

Algae and water-crowfoots grow on the bottom; on the shore, reeds, bulrushes, rushes and saw-sedge beds, a protected plant community. The Júcar nase, a threatened fish now rare in the basin, lives here. Grey herons and marsh harriers can be seen, moorhens and little grebes heard, and the otter hunts in Los Cedazos.

Four protected pieces

Decree 46/2010 of 4 May made the lakes a micro-reserve of 125.7 hectares in four areas that do not touch: the Mohorte lakes (7.78 ha), in the dependent village of Mohorte in the municipality of Cuenca; Las Zomas (9.05 ha); Los Cedazos, Laguna Negra and others (80.10 ha), between Fuentes and Arcas del Villar; and the Ojo de la Corva lakes (28.77 ha). Agriculture dominates the surroundings, and the lakes are the refuge of a unique ecosystem, with very distinctive aquatic vegetation.

Plan your visit

Before you travel

An interpretive trail follows the lakes. Do not enter the water or tread on the shores.

Combine with

The Fuentes Interpretation Centre, with the dinosaurs of Lo Hueco.