Village
Alarcón, in La Manchuela Conquense (Cuenca), has 173 inhabitants (2025) and is declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) as a historic-artistic ensemble. Set on a promontory surrounded on three sides by an almost closed meander of the Júcar, defended by three walled enclosures and a castle of Muslim origin — from which it takes its name, from the Arabic alarcón, “the fortress” — conquered by Alfonso VIII in 1184, it was the head of one of the regions of the old Lordship of Villena. Its keep now houses a Parador. It also preserves religious and civil architecture, such as the churches of Santo Domingo de Silos and Santa María, the Casa de Villena and the palace of the Castañeda family; that of San Juan Bautista holds the mural cycle that Jesús Mateo painted between 1994 and 2002, protected by Unesco in 1997.
Monument
A fortress of Muslim origin built on a rocky spur surrounded by a meander of the Júcar river, dependent first on the emirate of Córdoba and later on the taifa kingdom of Toledo; it was conquered by Alfonso VIII in 1184, after a nine-month siege led by Captain Fernán Martínez de Ceballos, who was rewarded with the privilege of adopting the surname Martínez de Alarcón. The kings of Castile enlarged it and granted it a charter (fuero) in 1186 along with an extensive lordship, with an alfoz of 63 villages reaching as far as Albacete and La Roda. In 1305 it passed to the infante don Juan Manuel, who wrote part of his literary work there, and in 1446 to the nobleman Juan Pacheco, Marquis of Villena. A Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) since 1992, its 15th-century keep today houses a Parador Nacional.
Monument
A 16th-century church, also called the church of Santa María del Campo, built in coursed rubble masonry with ashlar at the corners and buttresses; it belongs to the Renaissance style, although the Monumental Catalogue of the Diocese of Cuenca describes it as Plateresque, in a work transitional between Gothic and Renaissance. It is a hall-type columnar church, with three naves covered by ribbed vaulting whose ribs rise directly from the columns, without capitals, forming radiating stars in the central nave. The five-sided polygonal apse, flanked by columns bearing a large scallop-shell motif linked to the Order of Santiago, holds an altarpiece dated to around 1572. The main entrance, on the south side, opens beneath a triumphal arch with double colonnade. A Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), it stands within the walled precinct of the town.
Monument
The church of Santo Domingo de Silos is a Catholic temple of Romanesque origin from the 13th century, located on the square of Santo Domingo in Alarcón (Cuenca), the oldest of those preserved in the town. It has a rectangular single-nave plan, a semicircular apse with a groin vault, and a square tower at its foot; of the original vault, only the third bay and the transverse arches remain. Its proto-Gothic portal features four roll arches, jambs with three columns each, and horseshoe archlets with rosettes, in the sobriety typical of late Castilian Romanesque. In the north wall opens a Gothic chapel with a five-web ribbed vault decorated with paintings of serpent heads, linked to the coat of arms of the Pacheco family. The building was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), in the category of monument, in 1992.
Monument
The church of San Juan Bautista in Alarcón (Cuenca), a deconsecrated temple, is today a permanent art space housing the monumental murals painted by Jesús Mateo between 1994 and 2002, after he covered the entire old building with this set of paintings. The current construction dates from the 16th century and replaced an earlier Romanesque-style building. The work has held official UNESCO sponsorship since 1997 for its great worldwide artistic interest, and since opening to the public it has been visited by more than 40,000 people a year.
Monument
A building begun in medieval times and completed in the 16th century, combining Gothic and Renaissance elements. It is one of the four historic churches of the town.
Monument
A slender defensive tower erected in the 14th century by order of the infante don Juan Manuel. It commands views over the town, the castle and the other outlying towers of the fortified system.
Monument
An outlying tower on a pentagonal plan on the far side of the Júcar, joined to a stretch of wall that closed off the narrow isthmus. It formed part of the outer defensive ring of Alarcón.
Monument
A forward watchtower of the defensive system of Alarcón, built on the other side of the river. Together with the Cañavate tower it prevented enemies from approaching the town.
Monument
Three successive walled enclosures protected the approach to the town, each with its gate flanked by towers. The Puerta del Campo, the Puerta del Calabozo and the Puerta del Bodegón survive.
Nature
The River Júcar traces an almost closed meander that isolates the promontory on which the town stands, leaving it surrounded by water on three sides. It is one of the most spectacular river landscapes in Cuenca.
Nature
The Alarcón reservoir extends over the upper course of the Júcar river, about six kilometres upstream from the town of Alarcón (La Manchuela Conquense, Cuenca), and is key to regulating the basin; downstream lies the small Henchidero dam. The project began in May 1937, during the Second Republic; work started in 1942 and the reservoir was inaugurated in 1955, though it was not considered finished until 1970. The dam, a concrete gravity dam, is 67 metres high and 317 metres long at the crest, and holds up to 1,112 cubic hectometres of water over 6,840 hectares. It is used for irrigation and regulation, with a power station generating 281,000 kW. The village of Gascas was left submerged beneath its waters, its remains surfacing when the water level drops.
Curiosity
The painter Jesús Mateo covered the interior of the church of San Juan Bautista with a cycle of murals produced between 1994 and 2002, a work that had the backing of UNESCO. It has become the town's leading contemporary artistic draw.
Curiosity
In 1981 the text of the Statute of Autonomy of Castile-La Mancha was approved in Alarcón. The town thus became linked to the institutional birth of the region. According to the article on the municipality, the draft Statute was approved specifically on 3 December 1981 in the church of Santa María. That same year, on 3 July, the delimitation of the area around Alarcón as a historic-artistic ensemble had also been approved.
Curiosity
The infante don Juan Manuel (1282-1348), author of El conde Lucanor, was lord of Villena and closely linked to the fortress of Alarcón. The building of several of its towers is attributed to him.