Village
Municipality of the comarca of Sierra de Alcaraz y Campo de Montiel, in the province of Albacete, dominated by a limestone inselberg that rises almost a hundred metres above the plain and is crowned by a castle of Islamic origin, with semicircular towers and more than a thousand metres of walled perimeter; the crag was occupied from the Bronze Age by a fortified oppidum with storage silos. It was the first of the great hamlets of Alcaraz to buy its jurisdictional independence, in 1537, and preserves the Baroque church of Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza, begun in 1716.
Monument
A fortress of Islamic origin perched on a crag that rises almost a hundred metres above its base, with semicircular towers and more than a thousand metres of walls. In the 19th century it was protected by four batteries: Daoíz, Velarde, San Fernando and San Carlos.
Monument
Baroque temple of Peñas de San Pedro begun in 1716 under Bishop Luis Belluga y Moncada, to a design by the architect Cosme Carreras, with a Latin-cross floor plan, a single nave with a barrel vault and an octagonal dome. Dedicated to Santa María de la Mayor Esperanza and Santa Librada Mártir, it was finished in 1747, although the tower, the dome and a chapel were not completed until 1797. The dome shows the four Fathers of the Church on its pendentives, and the main portal, in Baroque style, was completed around 1740. It preserves a Rococo altarpiece from the mid-18th century, carved by Juan de Gea and Ignacio Castell and gilded by the Sánchez brothers, and bells from 1809, the largest weighing about 736 kilos.
Monument
El Pilar de Peñas de San Pedro is a public fountain built in 1773, in the time of Charles III, when the settlement was established at the foot of the castle. It is fed by an underground conduit that rises on the hillside of the crag and has served the village as a source of life for more than two centuries. It is a stone structure with an outlet spout and two troughs where livestock used to drink, and it has always been a meeting place for the townspeople.
Monument
Museum bringing together Flemish pieces from the 16th century, Baroque sculpture, archival manuscripts and archaeological finds from the municipality, housed in the parish church of Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza and its outbuildings. It was started in the early 1970s by a group of young people from the village interested in preserving the religious heritage, and officially reopened on 7 June 2003. Among its pieces are three monstrances, 18th-century chalices, a 15th-century Gothic sculpture in alabaster marble, several Baroque figures of Christ, including one in ivory, paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries, and a parish book titled Milagros de la Santa Cruz, dated between 1608 and 1742.
Nature
A hill of Cretaceous limestone standing isolated above the plain and crowned by the castle, an inselberg surrounded by holm oak woods and Mediterranean scrub where golden eagles, peregrine falcons and griffon vultures fly.
Activity
Pilgrimage held in Peñas de San Pedro, province of Albacete, in which the image of the Santísimo Cristo del Sahúco is carried at a run on the shoulders between its sanctuary in the hamlet of El Sahúco and the parish church of the town, a route of about 15 kilometres. The bringing takes place on the first Monday of Pentecost and the return, more crowded, on 28 August; along the way the runners make three stops — El Pardalejo, La Rambla and El Puente La Solana — where the townspeople gather to kiss the feet of the Christ. They wear white shirt and trousers and a coloured sash, traditionally blue, in one of the most distinctive and best-attended ethnographic events of the province.
Nature
Excavations have revealed occupation from the Bronze Age onwards and a large fortified oppidum with storage silos. Imported Attic pottery confirms trading contacts with the Mediterranean.
Curiosity
Until 1833 the municipal district of Peñas de San Pedro covered some 625 square kilometres; its division gave rise to the municipalities of Pozohondo, Alcadozo, San Pedro and Pozuelo.
Historical milestone
It was the first of the great hamlets of Alcaraz to buy its jurisdictional independence, in 1537. The inselberg crowned by its castle thus came to command a district of its own on the frontier between the sierra and the Albacete plain.
Historical milestone
During the First Carlist War the territorial high court created in Albacete had to move its seat three times for safety, and between 1837 and 1840 one of them was the walled crag of Peñas de San Pedro, which thus housed the southeast's high court.