El Pozuelo

A village at the edge

El Pozuelo lies at the far north-west of the Serranía Alta, far from everything: Carrascosa, the nearest village, is 10 km away as the crow flies. This is mountain country, with prolonged frosts and snow.

Routes

The PR-CU 96 short-distance trail leaves southwards on the Virgen de los Hoyos path. It passes Pino Seco, La Solana and Hoya del Lobo, descends to a seasonal stream and climbs to the hill of the Nuestra Señora de los Hoyos hermitage. It is 7 km on track; return by the same route.

The Los Hoyos pilgrimage

The Nuestra Señora de los Hoyos hermitage stands at about 1,000 metres above the Arroyo de la Virgen in the Guadiela basin and is documented from the Middle Ages. Nearby are a hill with Celtiberian hillfort remains, Peña Escrita, with a Roman inscription, and road remains. Every 11 September one of the Serranía’s largest pilgrimages was held here: people came from El Pozuelo, Carrascosa, Beteta, Masegosa, Cañizares, Cañamares, Fuertescusa, Priego or Alcantud, on horseback or foot, some barefoot, for one or two days of festivities before the farming year began at San Miguel. There was dancing, communal eating, courtships and votive offerings hung on the walls. There is also a legend of the Los Hoyos lizard, reaching as far as the Americas of the age of discovery, like Tejeda’s caiman.

The hermitage has a single nave divided in two by a turned-spindle screen of painted wood, and the Virgin’s image at the altar. Locally people remember a fire around 1983 burning the surrounding pine forests, then denser, while leaving the hermitage intact. The main celebration moved to the second weekend of August when more people are in the village, but in 2022 some still came on 11 September.

Iron and an ironworks with Cervantes in the background

Two iron mines were registered in the municipality in 1839: San Esteban, north of the village, and Santa Cristina on the Loma del Campo. Already in the 18th century, according to the Ensenada Cadastre, El Pozuelo’s inhabitants worked the ironworks and flour mill of Santa Cristina, a settlement on the Guadiela now in Carrascosa municipality. Locally it is said Cervantes visited: a son-in-law, Luis de Molina, managed the ironworks, as established by Astrana Marín. Nothing proves he lived in Santa Cristina, still less that his father-in-law visited him.

Plan your visit

The plan is the hermitage path: all of it if you have the morning, or to Hoya del Lobo and back.

Before you travel

There are no services along the way: take water and food. In winter the track has ice and snow.

Combine with

Carrascosa is 10 km away as the crow flies and Cañizares 13.