Logbook · 8 places

What to see and do in Calamocha

What to see and do in Calamocha (Jiloca, Teruel): 8 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 1 Activities · 3 Historical milestones · 1 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of Calamocha

Church of Calamocha 50 m
Battle of Cutanda 9.9 km

Towns near Calamocha

Spain › Aragon › Teruel › Jiloca › Calamocha

What to see and do in Calamocha

Calamocha
Village
Calamocha is the administrative capital of the Jiloca comarca, in the province of Teruel, with the church of Santa María la Mayor and its mudéjar bell tower presiding over the town. It sits on the banks of the Jiloca river, in a wide valley surrounded by the sierras of the Iberian System, on the Cantabrian-Mediterranean corridor that links Valencia, Zaragoza and Bilbao, halfway between Teruel and its capital. It is the most important locality in the north-western third of the province and the seat of a judicial district; its economy combines services with a notable agri-food industry, being one of the main producing centres of Jamón de Teruel. To the north-east rises the Sierra de Pelarda, which separates the Pancrudo and Huerva rivers and reaches 1,512 m. It has 4,655 inhabitants (INE 2025).
Church of Santa María la Mayor de Calamocha
Monument
The archpriest church of Santa María la Mayor is the great religious building of Calamocha (Teruel), with a bell tower in Mudéjar style. It dates from the 18th century and has a Baroque façade. It was built over the town's old fortified castle, from the 14th century, of which some remains survive and appear on Calamocha's coat of arms.
Church of Calamocha
Monument
Church of Santa María la Mayor, with its distinctive Mudéjar bell tower, in the administrative capital of the Jiloca. It is the archpriestly church of Calamocha, with a Baroque doorway, and sources place its construction between the 17th and 18th centuries. It was raised on the ruins of the town's old fortified castle, which dated from the 14th century, of which nothing is visible today except the raised site on which the church stands.
Festivities of Calamocha
Activity
The patronal festivities of Calamocha (Jiloca, Teruel) are held on 15, 16 and 17 August in honour of the Virgen and San Roque. Its central event is the Baile de San Roque, in which hundreds of residents dance in procession dressed in a long-sleeved white shirt, white trousers, a maroon-checked scarf, a blue sash, white esparto sandals and castanets with coloured ribbons; the dance is more than a century old. In September, on the 10th, 11th and 12th, the festivities of the Santo Cristo del Arrabal are held, and on the first Sunday of May a centuries-old pilgrimage takes place to the hermitage of Santa Bárbara, known locally as the Día del Cerro.
Battle of Cutanda
Historical milestone
In June 1120, while besieging Calatayud, Alfonso I the Battler learned that an Almoravid army recruited since the previous winter in Molina de Aragón, Lérida, Murcia, Granada, Valencia and Seville, commanded by Ibrahim ibn Yusuf, was marching towards Zaragoza in an attempt to retake it. The Aragonese king, supported by William IX of Aquitaine, went out to meet it at Cutanda, near Calamocha, where the Muslims had arrived by heading up the Jiloca valley. The Christian victory, decisive and with numerous Almoravid losses, secured the Ebro valley and allowed Alfonso I to seize Calatayud and Daroca. The episode passed into popular sayings in the expression «peor fue la de Cutanda», used to play down misfortunes.
El Poyo de mio Cid
Historical milestone
Tradition and the route of the Camino del Cid identify this locality in the municipality of Calamocha, situated on the slopes of the San Esteban hill, on the left bank of the Jiloca river, between Calamocha and Fuentes Claras, with the poyo where the Cantar de mio Cid places Rodrigo Díaz's camp during his exile: «En un cerro se asentó que está sobre Monreal, el cerro es un alto poyo, maravilloso lugar». The place had a castle, destroyed in the wars of James II of Aragon against Castile, which was returned to the Crown of Aragon under the treaty of Campillo in 1281. Known simply as El Poyo until 1970, it was a control point over the Jiloca corridor in the 11th century.
Battle of the War of the Spanish Succession on the Jiloca
Historical milestone
On 16 December 1706 a battle was fought beside Calamocha between the troops of Archduke Charles and the supporters of Felipe V. The valley was an obligatory corridor for the armies that disputed Aragon in that war.
Ham with the Teruel Designation of Origin
Food and drink
Calamocha is one of the main centres for making the ham covered by the protected designation of origin of Teruel. The altitude and the dry climate of the valley allow natural drying sheds and prolonged curing.