Mira

A town on the Cabriel

Mira lies in the east of Serranía Baja (lower Serranía), on the eastern bank of the Cabriel and within the Valle del Cabriel Biosphere Reserve. It is one of the milder municipalities in the mountains. In the mid-19th century this was broken, stony country living from cereals, sheep, two flour mills, a fulling mill, a pottery and a few sawyers who sold boards.

The Cueva Santa

In a ravine at about 860 metres opens the Cueva Santa del Cabriel. It was an Iberian sanctuary between the 5th and 2nd centuries BC, with more than a hundred goblet-shaped vessels offered in its galleries, and a hermitage of the Virgin from the 14th century. Its passage faces sunset at the summer solstice. The pilgrimage continues: in the early 20th century people from Fuenterrobles arrived with decorated carts, Mass in the cave and May songs. The hamlet of Fuencaliente, beside the cave, was submerged beneath the Contreras reservoir in 1975.

What trades and memory tell

In 1753 the town had a cloth fulling mill which it leased annually by auction. Beekeepers took their cork hives to winter in the kingdom of Valencia, brought them back to Mira in spring and then moved them up into the Moya and Cuenca mountains: a seasonal migration of bees, with a six-day journey to Valencia.

The municipality’s hills contain Iberian settlements identified through surface finds, such as Los Castellares, the pottery workshop of Ladera del Molino and El Molón de Mira, gathered in the Cerro Viejo entry. At the Los Villares necropolis, railway works uncovered cremation urns in 1932.

The Mira river gorge

Beside the town, from Fermín’s mill, a short local trail of about two kilometres follows the gorge where the Ojos de Moya river, here already called the Mira, cuts into limestone on its way to the Cabriel. Panels identify the trees: willows, poplars and white poplars beside the water and, higher up, pines, holm oaks and strawberry trees, whose fruit was ripe in November 2022. It ends at the Ánimas viewpoint. There are murals on streets and stairways in the town. This description predates the 2024 flood.

The 2024 flood

On the night of 29–30 October 2024, during the DANA storm, the Ojos de Moya river burst its banks and entered houses on both sides. A local woman died, around fifty people were rescued from rooftops, and hundreds of homes and businesses were damaged. Work was still continuing a year later. The story is told in The Mira flood.

Plan your visit

Start with the town and leave the Cueva Santa for later, allowing time: it is both a hermitage and an archaeological site.

Before you travel

Do not touch anything in the cave or enter with fire. Check access and the pilgrimage date beforehand.

Combine with

Narboneta, which once formed part of Mira’s municipality, is 4.6 km away in a straight line, and Aliaguilla 10 km.