Serranía Media

Between the city and the mountains

The Serranía Media begins at the gates of Cuenca, whose municipality extends into the Natural Park and contains the Torcas de los Palancares and the Huécar gorge. To the north and east come small villages: Palomera, in the Huécar gorge; Mariana and Buenache de la Sierra, with their churches; and in the Escabas valley, Cañamares, with its willow fields.

The Júcar crosses it. Rural Romanesque architecture recurs from village to village: Arcos de la Sierra, Zarzuela and the villages of Sotorribas. Monteagudo de las Salinas has its castle above the houses.

What memory tells

• Light from the river. From 1926 the Júcar’s water drove the Salto power station in Villalba de la Sierra, and the lake at Uña grew with the channel. El Salto de Villalba.
• Two dinosaur sites. Lo Hueco, in Fuentes, emerged during high-speed railway works; Las Hoyas, in La Cierva, is a lake from 125 million years ago.
• Those who left. Excluding the city, the 20 municipalities with data totalled 14,086 inhabitants in 1950 and 3,468 in 2021, 75% fewer. Depopulation.

Exploring the area

Many villages are less than an hour from Cuenca, and the PR-CU short-distance trails link their hermitages, gorges and castles. The Natural Park covers the northern part.