Enguídanos

Where the Cabriel and Guadazaón meet

Enguídanos lies in the south-east of the province where the Cabriel receives the Guadazaón, within the Valle del Cabriel Biosphere Reserve. It was a frontier stronghold from the Middle Ages, and its hilltop castle shows work from the 13th to 16th centuries. It is among the atlas’s mildest villages: frost occurs on few days a year.

Enguídanos is the village of five rivers: the Cabriel, Guadazaón, Narboneta, Mira and San Martín meet within its municipality, with gorges such as the Hoz del Agua and Hoz del Mira. The church is Gothic, with a Mudéjar coffered ceiling and an ogee arch, and the village has Fuente de San Blas. Beside Puente de Hierro are unstudied remains thought to be a Roman bridge.

For San Blas, people remember sung mass with a sermon and the saint’s procession round the church with drums. Mass and procession continued in 2025, and the festival had added evening dances and food tastings.

In January, for San Antón, a bonfire is lit and mass with blessing of animals is held the next day. In 2022 the bonfire was announced for Saturday the 15th at eight in the evening and mass for Sunday.

In March 2025 Enguídanos opened the Trashumancias 2.5 training programme with a session on rural schooling with retired and practising teachers, a jota workshop for students and villagers and the performance Me lleva la corriente by Algazara.

Cabeza Moya

About five kilometres south-east lies Cerro Cabeza Moya, a Celtiberian settlement of the 5th to 3rd centuries BC. Discovered in 1979 after looting, it was excavated in 1980 and 1981: square and rectangular houses, a surrounding wall, local and Greek pottery and Roman coins. It was abandoned after a fire. The Museo de Cuenca holds objects from it, such as a handmade clay funnel and a small grey Iberian bottle of the 3rd century BC.

A station in the woods

Enguídanos station, on the Cuenca-Utiel line, is about fifteen kilometres from the village in the hills near the Víllora-Mira road; nobody on the radio has explained why it was placed there. It opened in November 1947 when the section linking Madrid, Cuenca and Valencia was completed, and its buildings are attributed to architect Secundino Zuazo: a two-storey passenger building, two warehouses with a loading platform, six railway workers’ homes in two blocks and toilets. In 2021 walls, stairs and chimneys still stood and interiors were wrecked. Nearby the Torres-Quevedo viaduct, about 680 metres long with twenty-three arches, crosses the Narboneta ravine. Cuenca Provincial Council (Diputación de Cuenca) wanted to turn the station into a sports tourism centre under the «Serranía en vía» (Serranía on track) project, stalled in 2021. No trains had run since that year following snowfall damage.

Routes

The PR-CU 53 short-distance trail is 15 km. It descends among vegetable gardens, crosses the Cabriel and follows it upstream on a track; then climbs to Las Hoyas, the highest point, shares a stretch with the GR 66 long-distance trail and descends through pine forest to the confined riverbed near Las Chorreras, where the two rivers meet. It returns along the left bank.

Plan your visit

Combine the centre and castle with the PR-CU 53. To see Cabeza Moya, first ask the town council about access.

Before you travel

Since the DANA, a cut-off low weather event, of October 2024, going down to the pools and entering from the right bank at Las Chorreras has been forbidden. The only access is the PR-CU 53 on the left bank. The trail passes near the ravine edge: take care.

Combine with

Víllora is 9 km away as the crow flies and Cardenete 12.5.