Monteagudo de las Salinas

A village on high ground

Monteagudo de las Salinas lies in Serranía Media (middle Serranía), at around 1,000 metres. Its stone houses climb towards the castle, a medieval fortress that formed part of the territory’s defences after the conquest of Cuenca and overlooks the surrounding land. The municipality mixes Mediterranean woodland, pine forest and farmland. The second part of its name recalls the salt extracted here. Until 1916 the village was called simply Monteagudo.

What trades and memory tell

In spring 1624, Francisco Patiño, María de Francis and Sebastián de la Huerta left Monteagudo for Santiago de Compostela to fulfil a vow. Their route is unknown, but because of them the Camino de la Lana to Santiago starts here. It continues to Burgos, joining the Camino Francés, along the old route by which wool from the Alcarria and cloth from Cuenca travelled to the Medina fairs and the Burgos merchants’ consulate.

The municipality’s boundaries changed several times: in the 19th century it included Yémeda, and in the 1980s it was joined to Almodóvar de Monte Rey.

The king’s salt

Monteagudo’s saltworks used brine from wells and belonged to the Crown. In 1253, Alfonso X recalled in a lead-sealed charter that only salt from Monteagudo and Tragacete could be sold in the lands of Huete and Cuenca, and that anyone bringing in Beteta salt risked arrest and seizure of everything they carried. Part of the income passed to the Church: in 1297 Bishop Gonzalo Díaz Palomeque granted the cathedral chapter 500 maravedís from it, and in 1339 Alfonso XI ordered the master of Calatrava to pay the bishop and chapter 1,200 maravedís annually. In 1384 the royal court ruled on the chapter’s case against Abraham Buhardo, a Jew from Cuenca leasing the royal saltworks of Fuentelmanzano and Monteagudo, because he had failed to deliver the salt owed for six years. In the Ensenada Cadastre of 1752 the village still declared brine saltworks «que pertenecen a Su Majestad» (belonging to His Majesty). Salt throughout the mountains is covered in The salt of the Serranía.

The saltworks’ remains lie about two kilometres from the village: almost a hundred evaporation pans, channels (without iron, to prevent rust, according to the account), a small building at the spring mouth and a rectangular store with a timber roof dated to the 17th and 18th centuries. In 2021 water still ran through some channels. The path up to the castle had then been repaired, with a railing and benches, and the courtyard cistern protected by a grille.

Plan your visit

Allow a morning to explore the village, climbing through the old centre to the castle. If you are walking the Camino de la Lana, this is its starting point.

Before you travel

Ask the town hall whether the castle can be entered. Bring warm clothing: at this altitude it turns cool even in summer.

Combine with

Arguisuelas is 7.5 km away in a straight line and Reíllo 11.5 km.