Cañete

A town hanging from a hill

Cañete lies in the Serranía Baja, some 70 km from Cuenca. The houses climb the slopes of a long, narrow promontory, with the castle at the top, a hundred metres or so above the roofs, and the valley of the río Mayor del Molinico below. It was a frontier town: in 1222 it became a dependent village of Moya, in 1285 it received the title of villa (chartered town), and at the end of the 15th century it became a marquisate of the Hurtado de Mendoza family. It had Jewish and Morisco communities and prospered with the rise of the Mesta, the royal guild of stockbreeders.

The castle is a very long rock-top enclosure, divided into three spaces, with towers from the Islamic period and 15th-century alterations. The walls, with their sawtooth line, surround the old town, which has been a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain’s highest heritage listing) since 1996. In December 2025 the restoration of the side wall went out to tender for 422,000 euros: some 130 metres on the outside, 90 on the inside and more than 1,400 m² of work.

From gate to gate

• The Puerta de las Eras, with its horseshoe arch, the gate of San Bartolomé, the gate of la Virgen and the Puerta del Rey.
• The arcaded 15th-century Plaza Mayor.
• El Postigo, the gorge of the río de la Virgen below the wall, with houses resting against it.
• The Gothic-Mudéjar church of Santiago, the church of San Julián and the former College-Seminary.
• The arco de la Sinagoga (Synagogue Arch), La Picota and the vernacular architecture of the old town.
• On the outskirts, the hermitage of the Virgen de la Zarza, the patron saint’s.

What trades and memory tell

Álvaro de Luna and Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza, Viceroy of Peru, were both from Cañete, and the Sephardic family of Elias Canetti, winner of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Literature, is thought to have lived here. La Alvarada, a medieval festival, is dedicated to Álvaro de Luna; in September 2025 it reached its twenty-fifth edition. That year’s event recalled the journey made in 2003 by a delegation from Cañete to Cañete in Chile to twin the two towns. In the First Carlist War Cabrera occupied and fortified the town, and in the Civil War the Teruel front was close by.

Cañete went on celebrating carnival after the war, but without masks: with faces uncovered. The story is told in Carnaval de ánimas y noche de San Juan.

On 9 March 2024 the Hostería de Cañete was the venue announced for the second forum on traditional ecological knowledge, devoted to wood, water and the trades of the forest. The programme announced:

• an exhibition of traditional architecture and machinery;
• a talk by Emilio Guadalajara on the old resin and timber operations of the area.

In 1990 Emilio Escutia Asensio founded Radio Onda Municipal in Cañete, on 107.0 FM. This is told in the history published by Radio Serranía, which also records that a technical fault took it off the air.

Plan your visit

Cañete is best seen on foot, from gate to gate, finishing with the climb to the castle to look down on the town.

Before you travel

The streets are narrow and steep, and the castle has uneven ground. Check with the town council whether the churches are open. During La Alvarada the old town fills with people.

Combine with

Huérguina, which was once part of Cañete, is 3.5 km away as the crow flies, and Boniches 6.6 km.