Cardenete

A large village in the Serranía Baja

Cardenete lies in the Serranía Baja between the Guadazaón and Cabriel, within the Valle del Cabriel Biosphere Reserve. Its peak was between the 16th and 19th centuries. At one end of the village, on a rock platform, stands Cardenete castle, commissioned by a Marquis of Moya between 1520 and 1540 and never finished.

The church of La Asunción, completed in 1554, has a wooden roof with coffers and a Baroque organ of over eight hundred pipes, restored in 2013. At Holy Week the matraca, a wooden clapper, replaces the bells; it returned to the bell tower in January 2025.

What trades and memory tell

The former flour factory, from the late 19th century, moved milling from the mill to the machine and, with the railway, supplied the whole district. It stopped in the 1960s and retains its three floors linked by belts and wooden pipes. Outside the village remain the ruins of the Molino del Sargal.

The Mycological Museum explains what a fungus does in the soil and with trees, and has two interpretive routes through village and woods. These are not mushroom-gathering routes. The Ethnographic Museum preserves past life.

In 2021 a flock of several hundred sheep still left Cardenete daily to graze between Cardenete, Yémeda and Carboneras: stubble fields and woodland, kept out of crops and the road. Two brothers who inherited the family livestock tended it; one had previously worked in the village timber factory. They went with two donkeys, one for belongings and riding and the other, a pregnant female, among the sheep, and a female dog to gather them. In summer they leave in the cool and return at midday; in winter they begin at the shed. Wool no longer paid for shearing: income came from lambs.

Around Cardenete

• La Morrita viewpoint, the municipality’s highest point, overlooking much of the district.
• San Antonio de Padua hermitage and Fuente Cornuda.
• Casa del Obispo Torrijos and the town hall.

Routes

The PR-CU 51, Sendero de las Fuentes, a short-distance trail, is 32.5 km with variants. It leaves Fuente del Tornajo beside the castle and links the springs of La Dehesilla, La Sarga and El Santillo, Las Barracas del Villar, a viewpoint over the Cabriel river plain and the Sargal valley.

Plan your visit

Start with the church and flour factory, continue to the Mycological Museum and climb La Morrita towards dusk.

Before you travel

Confirm museum and church opening times with the town council. Mushroom gathering in the woods is regulated.

Combine with

Yémeda is 3 km away as the crow flies and Víllora about 9.