Cañamares

A village beside the Escabas

Cañamares lies in the Serranía Media, on the bank of the Escabas, among cliffs and woodland. It is one of the northern gateways to the Serranía, between the Alcarria and the mountains, and among the district’s less cold villages. It was founded in the Late Middle Ages by soldiers from La Rioja; hence its patron San Millán, the church bearing his name and the village’s twinning with San Millán de la Cogolla.

What trades and memory tell

What distinguishes Cañamares is basket willow. In the Escabas and Trabaque valleys willow plantations make fields green in summer and red in autumn, with gorges behind. The rods supply basketmaking, still practised here: shopping baskets, back baskets, olive baskets, cradles, children’s walking frames, rattles, armchairs and trunks.

Logs came down the Escabas towards the Guadiela and Tagus, and Cañamares is one of the five Cuenca municipalities included in the 2021 listing of the Gancheros del Alto Tajo as a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain’s highest heritage listing), with Priego, Cañizares, Beteta and Santa María del Val: The gancheros of the Escabas and Guadiela.

In 2022 a local producer growing willow and making rolls for fencing, parasols and basketmaking materials saw the trade as endangered: few plantations and workers remained, and much cheaper imported willow was taking the orders. At the time the European Union was considering protecting crafts with geographical indications, as already done for food, and he felt it was late. Around the same time a local basketmaker had more orders than he could fulfil and missed the days when several workshops shared large orders.

The Monsaete bus

The scheduled coach of La Campichuelense left Cuenca and travelled through the Campichuelo villages, from Mariana to La Frontera, then Cañamares and Cañizares. On 8 July 1948, nine years after the war, beyond the Monsaete pass at kilometre 37, stones blocked its way. A band of at least eight guerrillas of the Agrupación Guerrillera de Levante, led by «Paisano», killed the Guardia Civil officer travelling on the bus, Florencio Fernández Adrián, aged 30 with three children. They held the twelve passengers, including a priest and several bathers bound for Solán de Cabras, took money, watches and food, carried off the mail and burnt the bus. The driver escaped and spent the night hidden in the hills. Since 1993 the road no longer climbs Monsaete: it passes through a tunnel of about 600 metres.

Plan your visit

Walk through the village, see the willow in season and ask about the basketmakers if the trade interests you. The Escabas gorge towards Priego is the next stop.

Before you travel

Willow is a crop and has an owner: do not enter the plots or cut rods.

Combine with

Priego and La Frontera are about 6 km away as the crow flies, and Cañizares 8.5: the three together trace the Serranía’s timber-driving memory.