Village
Municipality of the comarca of Sierra del Segura, in the province of Albacete, whose fortress Castilian troops took in 1242 and whose handing over to the Order of Santiago made the town the administrative and religious head of the whole range; its inhabitants rose up in 1503 against the suppression of the fiscal franchises and in May 1936 the so-called Sucesos de Yeste left seventeen dead after the occupation of some land at La Graya. In the district extends the Fuensanta reservoir, built between 1929 and 1933 on the Segura, and its festivals of San Bartolomé combine running of the bulls with a night pilgrimage with bonfires on the hillside.
Monument
A fortress of 12th-century Muslim origin that later passed to the Order of Santiago. Its parade ground with a double gallery stands out, with Gothic columns on the lower level and a wooden gallery above.
Monument
The church of the Assumption, in Yeste, was built over the course of the 16th century and was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) on 16 March 1983. The complex combines two parts from different periods: an initial nave, begun in the late 15th century in Gothic style and finished around 1527, with a polygonal five-bay chancel and star vault; and a second nave, built perpendicular to it with a Renaissance portal with paired columns, which gave the church a T-shaped plan. The church holds pictorial works by Pedro Orrente, including two canvases of Saint Joseph and the Immaculate Conception dated 1627 and an altarpiece of the Epiphany by the same artist, together with figures of Mary, the Calvary and the Crucified Christ from the vanished 16th-century main altarpiece.
Monument
Founded in 1618 by a community of Discalced Franciscans established in the town, the convent retains an 18th-century cloister with arcades on pillars on the lower level and an upper gallery of smaller, simpler arches with a wooden balustrade. The façade opens onto a portico of three arches, the central one larger than the side ones. The building has undergone numerous alterations throughout its history.
Monument
The Casa del Concejo of Yeste is a 16th-century building constructed to serve as a meeting seat for the council officials, for the town's mayors to administer justice, and as a pósito, or grain store. It retains a loggia above which are placed two coats of arms: that of the town of Yeste and the imperial coat of arms of Charles V, which gives its name to its most recognisable façade.
Nature
A reservoir built between 1929 and 1933 on the River Segura, with a capacity of some 210 cubic hectometres. Its sheet of water hemmed in between mountain ranges is one of the most characteristic landscapes of the municipal district.
Nature
A peak of 1,898 metres located in the Calar de la Sima, the highest point of the municipality of Yeste and the location of the geodetic vertex. Very close by rises the Cerro de las Mentiras, 1,896 metres high, which owes its name to the fact that for a long time it was mistakenly considered the highest peak in the municipality.
Nature
Tributaries of the Segura that run through the municipality of Yeste, forming valleys and gorges, one of the best-preserved mountain river systems in the province. The Tus rises in Siles, at 1120 metres of altitude, and runs for 37 kilometres; on entering Yeste its canyon takes the name Estrecho del Infierno, between the Calar del Mundo and the Calar de la Sima, and flows into the Fuensanta reservoir. It gives its name to the Tus spa, known for its mineral-medicinal waters. The Zumeta adds its flow to the Segura at the Juntas de Miller, and the Taibilla completes the trio of rivers that cross the municipality.
Nature
Spring of mineral-medicinal waters located in the valley of the river Tus, in the spot known as the Hueco de Tus, whose use dates back, according to tradition, to Roman times. The spa was rebuilt under the patronage of the Archbishop of Valencia, Martín Pérez de Ayala.
Activity
The town's main festival, with bull runs from the Llano Majano to the Plaza de la Corredera and night-time open-air dances. On the night of the 23rd to the 24th a pilgrimage to the hermitage is held, with bonfires on the hillsides.
Activity
The Feria de Tradiciones de Yeste (Sierra del Segura, Albacete) is held on the last weekend of October and brings together traditional crafts, mountain cuisine, a livestock fair and a gathering of cuadrillas. Declared de Interés Turístico Regional (a regional-level tourism designation), it is one of the most visited and popular fairs in Castilla-La Mancha.
Curiosity
In May 1936, following the communal occupation of some land in La Graya, clashes broke out in which seventeen residents died, two of them councillors, and another thirteen people were wounded; a Civil Guard officer also died, killed with a bladed weapon. The clash, which took place on 29 May when a crowd tried to free six labourers arrested for working private land that had formerly been communal, recalled the Casas Viejas events of 1933 and has been described as the last massacre of peasants before the military coup. The episode caused a serious political crisis in the final months of the Second Republic and was recounted by Juan Goytisolo in his novel Señas de identidad.
Curiosity
Under the Order of Santiago, Yeste acted as the political and religious centre of a wide mountain territory that included villages now independent, such as Nerpio and Letur.
Historical milestone
The Castilian troops took in 1242 the fortress of Yeste and the Crown handed it to the Order of Santiago, which made it the administrative and religious head of the whole range for the following centuries, on the very frontier with Granadan Islam.
Historical milestone
The residents rose in 1503 against the Catholic Monarchs' decision to abolish the tax franchises that had served to attract settlers to this frontier town; without exemptions, the range lost its main attraction for resettlement.
Food and drink
A thick stew of pulses, vegetables and pig-slaughter trimmings that takes its name from the Yeste hamlet of Boche, where it has been cooked for generations in a pot set over a low fire. It is the main dish of the cold days of the sierra.