Salinas del Manzano

A village named after salt

Salinas del Manzano lies in eastern Serranía Baja (lower Serranía), within the Valle del Cabriel Biosphere Reserve. From the village centre the view is of mountains cut by ravines, with scattered holm oaks and pines among fields and hollows. In the centre are the Natividad church, San Roque hermitage and communal grain store; on a hill, the ruins of Las Malenas castle.

What trades and memory tell

The name comes from the saltworks, said to be Roman, worked since the Middle Ages and still standing in the municipality. Another mountain salt, that of Valsalobre, is described in The saltworks of Valsalobre.

The first written record of the saltworks dates from 1187, when Alfonso VIII granted their tithes to the canons of Santa María de Cuenca; radio accounts have also mentioned a Roman reference from 181 BC, linked to consul Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, whose text has not been seen. In 1513, a local man, Juan López, sailed with other young men to the Indies (popular accounts say «el Perú», which had not yet been conquered) to seek his fortune: this appears in the records of Seville’s Casa de la Contratación. In 1587, according to the diocese’s register of baptismal fonts, the village had 320 inhabitants. The Town Council attributes Las Malenas fortress, on a rock riddled with caves and passages, to 10th-century Muslims.

On 16 August, for San Roque, the village gathers at its hermitage for the Caridad, a charitable food distribution open to anyone wishing to join. In autumn, El Hoyo and Cañasáez are the mushroom-gathering areas.

The Las Alcobas del Salín museum preserves objects and tools from earlier life. In 2025 villagers called for the restoration of the saltworks, low walls, irrigation channels, bridges, castle and hermitage.

The salero

The saltworks, the salero as villagers call it, drew brine from a well: first with a waterwheel, which lasted until the 1980s, then with a motor pump in a small building replacing the wheel house. The water was stored in a tank, allowed to settle and distributed among the evaporation pans, where the sun evaporated it; the radio account counted two groups with 86 pools and about 5,000 m². Once the salt crystallised it was gathered, taken onto the walkways to drain and carried to the store. People came from neighbouring villages to buy it, with pack animals and panniers and later in sacks, for sheep, cattle and goats and for the winter pig slaughter. Around 2021 no water had been drawn from the well for about ten years, although salt remained in the store.

The salero is privately owned. In September 2021 it entered Hispania Nostra’s Red List of endangered heritage, and in 2022 some clearing of the pools was reported, which was not restoration. It is not open for visits: view it from outside. Salt throughout the mountains is covered in The salt of the Serranía.

Plan your visit

The village takes a morning. Las Malenas consists of ruins on a hill: look without climbing.

Before you travel

Ask the town hall whether the museum is open.

Combine with

Salvacañete is 4.5 km away in a straight line, Huérguina 7.1 km and Alcalá de la Vega 7.2 km.