Tagus river basin district · memory of water
The Guadiela in the Serranía de Cuenca
The Guadiela is a tributary of the Tagus running through the Serranía de Cuenca and the Hoz de Beteta, a canyon with walls up to 200 m high, declared a Natural Monument. An 11.18 km stretch is listed as a River Nature Reserve, with very good ecological status. In Cañizares, the Jornadas Gancheras centre on it.
- Flows into
- Tagus
- Confidence of the data
- medium · source consulted
Guadiela → Tagus
Fed by
Its headwaters and the Hoz de Beteta are also covered on altotajo.es.
A tributary of the Tagus in the Serranía
The Guadiela belongs to the Tagus basin and runs through the province of Cuenca. The provincial springs catalogue places its source in Cueva del Hierro. Downstream it receives the Escabas.
Between the muelas, flat-topped limestone hills, of Carrascosa and El Palancar it opens the Hoz de Beteta, with walls up to 200 metres high: the Hoz de Beteta y Sumidero de Mata Asnos Natural Monument, covering 804 hectares in Beteta, Cañizares and Carrascosa. The Hoz de Tragavivos can be seen from the Cañizares viewpoints.
An 11 km stretch is a River Nature Reserve, flowing all year with very good ecological status: its ash and willow riverbanks retain more than 90% of their natural character, with no invasive species.
What the river tells
- The gancheros’ river. Timber drives used the high waters of the Tagus and its tributaries. Cañizares holds events celebrating the gancheros, river timber drivers, with the Guadiela at their centre, and Puente de Vadillos has the Museo de la Madera y los Gancheros. The gancheros of the Escabas and Guadiela.
The Guadiela’s headwaters are also described from the Alto Tajo perspective on altotajo.es.
The memory we can follow
from 1500 to 1800
Buying themselves
The Serranía from the 16th to 18th centuries: villages buying their own courts, lords, wool, paper and iron, travellers to Peru and China and the 1752 Cadastre.
Read the story →16th century – 1940s
The gancheros of the Escabas and the Guadiela
How timber was driven down the tributaries of the Tagus in the Serranía de Cuenca, from Priego to Cañizares, and what remains of the ganchero's trade.
Read the story →Villages from which to read this basin
They are ways into its valleys and its memory. The selection includes riverside villages and those nearby; it does not mean that the whole of each municipality drains into this river.
The lands the water links
Frequently asked questions
Where does the Guadiela flow into?
The Tagus. Its basin belongs to the Tagus river basin district, although it runs through the province of Cuenca and receives the Escabas along the way, according to the reference consulted.
What is the Hoz de Beteta?
A canyon carrying the Guadiela between the muelas of Carrascosa and El Palancar, with walls up to 200 m high. Together with the Sumidero de Mata Asnos it forms a Natural Monument of 804.41 hectares, designated on 16 March 2004 in Beteta, Cañizares and Carrascosa.
Were there gancheros on the Guadiela?
The 2021 Agreement listing the Gancheros del Alto Tajo as a Bien de Interés Cultural refers to the Guadiela as «otro afluente del Tajo» (another tributary of the Tagus) and places events celebrating the gancheros in Cañizares, centred on the river. In Puente de Vadillos, in the same municipality, there is a Museo de la Madera y los Gancheros.
Data from the territory model
- Acuerdo de 20/04/2021 del Consejo de Gobierno por el que se declara Bien de Interés Cultural los Gancheros del Alto Tajo (DOCM n.º 80, 28-04-2021) · source consulted
- MITECO, Catálogo Nacional de Reservas Hidrológicas: Reserva Natural Fluvial Río Guadiela (ES030RNF183) · source consulted
- Diputación de Cuenca (visitacuenca.es): Hoz de Beteta · source consulted
- Catálogo provincial de fuentes y manantiales de Cuenca · reference located
- Wikipedia: Guadiela · reference located