Torre de la iglesia del Salvador and Barrio del Castillo
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
361 km
Riding-time estimate
6 h 07
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
361 km from Teruel to Teruel, about 6 h 07 of riding. The stops in between: Abrigo de los Dos Caballos, Castellón de los machos, Barrio del Castillo and back through Castellón de los machos. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Torre de la iglesia del Salvador
Teruel spent decades as the Spanish joke about forgotten provinces, until its people adopted the slogan Teruel existe, Teruel exists, and turned it into a political movement. Ride into the old centre and you will agree it exists rather vividly. The Torre del Salvador is one of its four great Mudéjar towers, built of brick and glazed ceramic in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by craftsmen trained in the Islamic tradition. The road, or rather a street, still passes through an archway at its base, and you can climb inside, between the outer and inner shells of the tower, up narrow stairs to the bells.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Torre de la iglesia del Salvador is where the day begins. Next is Abrigo de los Dos Caballos.
2. Abrigo de los Dos Caballos
Red rock and green pine make an unusual pair in Spain, and Albarracín has built a landscape out of it. The hills west of the town are the Pinares de Rodeno, a protected area where rodeno sandstone, a rusty red, has weathered into rounded boulders and little overhangs under a cover of pines. Those overhangs, sheltered from rain and wind, are where prehistoric painters did their work, and the Abrigo de los Dos Caballos is one of the shelters the Albarracín area is known for. The paintings belong to the Levantine tradition, part of the group inscribed by UNESCO in 1998, and they show animals, hunters and humans in rust-red pigment on the sandstone.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abrigo de los Dos Caballos comes up about 42 km into the recorded legs. Next is Castellón de los machos.
3. Castellón de los machos
High in the Serranía de Cuenca, among pine woods and sandstone outcrops near the village of Villar del Humo, prehistoric hunters painted figures on the rock shelters thousands of years ago. The site called Castellón de los Machos is one of a cluster in this area that belongs to the vast UNESCO listing of rock art of the Mediterranean Basin of the Iberian Peninsula, which covers hundreds of painted shelters from Catalonia to Andalusia. The images here are small, reddish and stylised, and finding them takes patience and good eyes.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 117 km into the recorded legs you reach Castellón de los machos. Next is Barrio del Castillo.
4. Barrio del Castillo
Cuenca is built on a spur of rock between two gorges, and the Barrio del Castillo is its highest quarter, the old castle district at the narrow tip of the ridge. The Huécar river runs along one side and the Júcar along the other, each in a deep cleft with limestone cliffs, and the old town clings to the top between them like a ship's prow. The castle that gave the quarter its name has largely gone, though a gate and a few walls remain, and the Torre de Mangana, a clock tower that was once part of the fortress, stands nearby. The whole walled town is on the UNESCO list as an unusual example of a medieval fortress city that kept its shape.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Torre de la iglesia del Salvador closes the day.
Leg by leg
Torre de la iglesia del Salvador to Abrigo de los Dos Caballos
Torre de la iglesia del Salvador → Abrigo de los Dos Caballos is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de los Dos Caballos to Castellón de los machos
Abrigo de los Dos Caballos → Castellón de los machos is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Castellón de los machos to Barrio del Castillo
Castellón de los machos → Barrio del Castillo is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Barrio del Castillo to back through Castellón de los machos
Barrio del Castillo → back through Castellón de los machos is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Castellón de los machos to back through Abrigo de los Dos Caballos
back through Castellón de los machos → back through Abrigo de los Dos Caballos is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Abrigo de los Dos Caballos to Torre de la iglesia del Salvador
back through Abrigo de los Dos Caballos → Torre de la iglesia del Salvador is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.