Villar de Domingo García

A village at the edge of the mountains

Villar de Domingo García lies in the west of the province, on the Serranía’s edge. Its municipality has grown: it incorporated Villalvilla in the 19th century and Sacedoncillo in the 1970s. And it has a hamlet with a place of its own in Spanish archaeology: Noheda.

The village stands on the boundary between the Alcarria and the Serranía, beside the Guadamejud river source and at the foot of the Sierra de Bascuñana. The Asunción church rises above the houses. On the outskirts, along a hillside beside the Rebollillo path, more than 120 cave cellars were cut into hard rock: the temperature stays constant inside, and wine was made and stored there. Many are now abandoned or collapsed.

The Roman villa of Noheda

About 500 metres from Noheda stands the Roman villa of Noheda, inhabited between the 1st century BC and 6th century AD. It preserves a 231 m² figured mosaic, almost entirely of tiny tesserae. In 2020, 420 of its glass tesserae were analysed: almost all are recycled Roman glass, common in the 4th century, and a few derive from Egyptian raw materials.

Within the municipality is Villalbilla, an abandoned village almost entirely in ruins. The person documenting it attributes this to distant water, farmland unable to support every family, Cuenca’s proximity as a destination and the stripping of empty houses. Do not enter: these are private properties and ruins.

In the hamlet of Noheda, which once had about two hundred residents and now barely fifteen registered, the villa has brought cars, coaches and students. Older people say they knew of the mosaic fifty or sixty years ago, long before excavation.

Plan your visit

Noheda is the reason for the journey. Before going, check that the site admits visitors.

Before you travel

Ask the regional Culture department or town hall about opening times and visiting conditions.

Combine with

Zarzuela and Mariana are about 14 km away in a straight line, already in the mountains.