Camino del Cid

Alcolea del Pinar to Anguita

Senderos Borderlands

Saturday 20 May 2023

Distance: 13.2 km Time: 6:00 Ascent: 40m Descent: 130m – Wikiloc

This stage runs from Alcolea del Pinar to Maranchón, a distance of 33 km so we decided to split it into two days with a stop at Anguita where we spent the night in Cuevas de Longarza, a Casa Rural (Rural House) provided by the town council.

From the highway hotel through Alcolea to the farm track on the other side involves about 4 km of walking on roads leading on to the motorway “walkers should be extremely cautious”. After that it was mostly farm tractor tracks until Aguilar de Anguita (10 km) where we spotted a road sign pointing to a Puente Romano (Roman Bridge) so we went that way on the road but never found the Bridge. The walk was generally down hill but at altitudes above 1,100m the temperature drops to 0℃ during the night and a cold wind blows in the day time.

Alcolea del Pinar (pop 236)
It took one man more than 20 years to carve this house out of a huge rock in Alcolea
Máximo Rojo garden, also in Alcolea, a series of sculptures and objects that together suggest a surreal image between a garden, a junkyard and a cemetery
Garbajosa (pop 17) Parish Church, strong stone construction with a beautiful belfry
Aguilar de Anguita (pop 15) high above the plains has been occupied since the Bronze Age – Celtiberians, Romans, Moors and Christians followed

Antigua (pop 97) is mentioned in the Cantar de mio Cid: They go up Henares at full speed, cross through the Alcarria and continue forward, passing through the Anguita caves.

Islamic watchtower from the 11th century, known as the Stork Tower
The caves referred to in the Cantar are in the cliffs below
18th century Ermita de la Soledad at the entrance to Anguita
Medieval Puente del Canto over the Tajuña River in Anguita
Former palace on the Plaza Mayor is today the Town Hall
Church of San Pedro de Anguita already existed at the end of the 12th century
It fell into disuse and, in the middle of the 20th century, into ruin. Since 1991, thanks to the efforts of the parish priest, the church has been recovered