Logbook · 6 places

What to see and do in Guadalaviar

What to see and do in Guadalaviar (Sierra de Albarracín, Teruel): 6 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 2 Nature · 1 Activities · 1 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of Guadalaviar

Montes Universales 2.5 km

Towns near Guadalaviar

What to see in Villar del Cobo 3.8 km · 2 places
What to see in Griegos 4.5 km · 3 places
What to see in Frías de Albarracín 10 km · 4 places
What to see in Tragacete 12 km · 14 places
What to see in Calomarde 12 km · 3 places
What to see in Noguera de Albarracín 13 km · 3 places
What to see in Tramacastilla 13 km · 3 places
What to see in Huélamo 15 km · 5 places

Spain › Aragon › Teruel › Sierra de Albarracín › Guadalaviar

What to see and do in Guadalaviar

Guadalaviar
Village
Guadalaviar is a municipality in the Sierra de Albarracín, in the province of Teruel, with 238 inhabitants, at more than 1,500 metres above sea level, at the foot of the Muela de San Juan and within the Montes Universales national hunting reserve. There the río Guadalaviar rises, which after Teruel takes the name río Turia, and nearby the Tagus also rises, marked by a monument. Its karst relief, covered with pine forests and pastures, supports transhumant sheep farming that moves down in winter to the meseta and Andalusia. In 1257 James I incorporated it into the Sesma de Villar del Cobo, a regime that lasted until 1837. It achieved municipal independence on 22 June 1694, more than a century after its ecclesiastical independence, in 1575.
Church of Guadalaviar
Monument
The parish church of Guadalaviar, near the source of the Turia river (Teruel), is consecrated to Saint James the Greater and was built in the 18th century. Before the present church was built, the residents provisionally used the chapel of Saint John the Baptist.
Montes Universales
Nature
The Montes Universales are a mountain system located on the southeastern edge of the Iberian System, between the provinces of Teruel, Guadalajara and Cuenca, whose peaks range between 1,600 and 1,935 metres in altitude. Administratively they belong to the Teruel comarca of the Sierra de Albarracín, with which they are often confused geographically. Their highest peak is the Caimodorro, at 1,936 metres, followed by Sierra Alta and the Muela de San Juan, at the foot of which lies Guadalaviar, at over 1,500 metres in altitude. There the Guadalaviar river rises, which after passing through Teruel takes the name Turia, and a few kilometres from the village lies also the source of the Tagus river, marked with a monument. Next to the Muela de San Juan is Griegos, the second-highest village in Spain.
Source of the Turia River
Nature
The Turia river rises at the Muela de San Juan, within the municipal district of Guadalaviar, right at the heart of the Montes Universales, in the Sierra de Albarracín. In this first stretch, until its confluence with the Alfambra river at Teruel, it is called the Guadalaviar, from the Arabic 'white river', a name it has kept since the 10th century; from there it becomes the Turia until it flows into the Mediterranean, after crossing Valencia, with a total course of 286 kilometres. In its first kilometres it receives the contributions of streams and ravines from the sierras of Tremedal and Jabalón, and as far as Gea de Albarracín its waters maintain a temperature and purity ideal for native trout. The source lies at over 1,500 metres in altitude, within the national hunting reserve.
Festivities of Guadalaviar
Activity
Guadalaviar celebrates its patron saint festivities in honour of Santiago Apóstol from 24 to 29 July, with the bull run on the 28th and a communal meal with the meat of the bulls fought on the 29th.
Lamb of the transhumant flocks
Food and drink
The villages of the upper Guadalaviar preserve a sheep stock linked to transhumance, which descended along the drove roads towards the winter pastures of Levante and La Mancha. From those flocks comes the lamb that is roasted at the festivities.