Reíllo

A village of the Moya lands

Reíllo lies in Serranía Baja (lower Serranía), near Carboneras de Guadazaón, and belonged to the lordship of Moya. According to one hypothesis, the natural route from the Júcar to the Cabriel passed through its municipality, as through Pajarón, Cañete and Moya, bringing pottery and fashions from eastern Spain to the mountains. The parish is Nuestra Señora de la Concepción.

What trades and memory tell

Festivities follow the year: Candlemas, San Blas and Carnival, with paloteos, a stick dance accompanied by verses.

The coat of arms proposed by the town council, reported on by the Royal Academy of History in June 2022, is green, with a silver castle for the Dehesa de la Torre and three gold fleurs-de-lis for the former dependence on Moya.

A pledge from 1688

On the second Sunday in May, the village goes in procession with its image to Carboneras de Guadazaón. This is Domingo de Procesiones, Processions Sunday, dating from 1688, when Carboneras, Arguisuelas, Reíllo, Pajarón and Pajaroncillo signed deeds pledging forever to honour the Santa Hijuela, a relic entrusted by the Marchioness of Moya to the Dominicans of Carboneras convent, and to attend its procession with their saints. The mayors renewed the deeds around 2023, and La Cierva and Villar del Humo have since joined.

The lord who wrote La Mosquea

José de Villaviciosa (1589–1658), lord of Reillo, wrote La Mosquea in his youth, a mock epic about the war between flies and ants, printed in Cuenca in 1615, twenty years before Lope de Vega’s La Gatomaquia, with which it is often compared. It was reprinted in Madrid in 1732 and 1777. Among the insect battles, the poem celebrates the Moscas river, which rises nearby in Fuentes.

Plan your visit

Reíllo takes little time to see, as a stop on a day through Serranía Baja.

Before you travel

Ask the town hall when the church opens.

Combine with

Carboneras de Guadazaón is 5.2 km away in a straight line and Cañada del Hoyo, with its lakes, 7.6 km.