Arcos de la Sierra

A hill above the Trabaque

Arcos de la Sierra lies in the Serranía Media, within the Natural Park, high above the bank of the Trabaque. It is a small village of quiet streets, with pine forest across the horizon.

The church of La Asunción is late Romanesque, from the 12th century: a single masonry nave with buttresses, a bell gable with two openings above the east end and, inside, a barrel vault and a dome before the chancel. Its baptismal font is among the most often cited.

What trades and memory tell

La Salobreja rises in the municipality, a saltwater spring over Keuper clays. Names such as Salobreja, Salmuera or Arroyo Salado mark where salt emerges on the Serranía’s map; in Valsalobre it was exploited until 1982, as told in The Valsalobre saltworks.

In March 2006 remains attributed to two AGLA guerrillas, Julián Antón López, «El Valencia», and another known as «Navarro», killed by the Guardia Civil in 1950, were exhumed in the cemetery. This is the guerrilla grave of Arcos de la Sierra, described in The guerrilla in the Serranía.

The shepherds’ path to El Picayo

Above the Trabaque canyon, the Barranco de los Albogones leads up to El Picayo, at about 1,470 metres. Above, the limestone forms a tormagal of blocks and passages, and between the walls remain livestock shelters that guide Fernando Carreras links to the path along which Arcos shepherds took their livestock into the mountains. From the summit can be seen the Trabaque valley, the Dehesa de los Olmos, the village and the Campichuelo, among black pine, spiny broom, juniper and kermes oak; griffon vultures perch on the cliffs.

A village held on a ground rent

Arcos de la Sierra did not belong entirely to its inhabitants. In 1845 Madoz explained that the Marquis of Ariza retained the superior title and had granted them the village and all its territory under an emphyteutic lease: in return they paid him 144 fanegas of grain a year, half wheat and half rye. The town council, with accounts of about 1,500 reales, was funded by twenty fanegas of wheat from the horno de poya, a communal oven paid in bread, 601 reales from pasture and a levy on villagers for the rest.

Plan your visit

The village centre and church can be seen in an hour.

Before you travel

Ask the town council or parish when the church is open. Treat the cemetery with respect.

Combine with

Castillejo-Sierra and Fresneda de la Sierra are about 4 and 5 km away as the crow flies.