Village
Villacañas is a municipality of La Mancha de Toledo, in the southeast of the province; its municipal area, the sixth largest in the province, alternates the plain of La Mancha with the sierra del Romeral, at 878 m, and a complex of lagoons. The name is documented in 1229 as Villar de Cañas, when the boundary markers were set with the mastership of the Order of Saint John; it obtained the title of town in 1557. Its most singular feature is its silos, dwellings dug up to four metres underground where the poorest families lived until the mid-20th century, today declared a Conjunto de Interés Histórico (a Spanish heritage-protection designation). The economy, linked to wine and agriculture, later turned towards the manufacture of wooden doors; today the dancers of the Cristo de la Viga, a festival on 1 May, are also notable. It has 9,411 inhabitants.
Monument
Dwellings excavated underground, declared a Conjunto de Interés Histórico (a Spanish heritage designation for a historic ensemble) and considered a unique architectural ensemble in Europe. Documented since the 17th century, they were used as regular housing until the mid-20th century, favoured by limestone ground that kept an agreeable temperature despite the region's extreme summers. Excavation of the silo traditionally began with a couple's engagement, when they would buy a plot of one celemín — 470 square metres in Villacañas — to open up bedrooms, a kitchen and a stable with no structural support other than the earth itself, the access and walls coated with lime to ease the heat. In 1950 there were 1,700 silos recorded in the town; today just over a dozen remain accessible.
Monument
The Museo Etnográfico del Silo recreates one of the typical underground dwellings of Villacañas, of which there were as many as 1,700 in the village in 1950. The decor faithfully reproduces what a humble dwelling of this kind was like, with its farming tools, furniture and household utensils, and lets visitors experience the sensation of living underground.
Curiosity
The silos went as deep as four metres and contained bedrooms, a kitchen, a dining room and even stables, a hayloft and a henhouse. Their walls were whitewashed to make the most of the scarce light.
Curiosity
From 1853 onwards the town became an important railway junction with three lines, all of them dismantled over time: the last stopped running in 1985.
Curiosity
From an economy based on wine and farming, Villacañas went on to concentrate a powerful wooden-door manufacturing industry which in 2008 employed close to four thousand workers.
Nature
A Manchegan wetland included in the Natura 2000 network and designated a Site of Community Importance. It holds water all year round and is home to flamingo populations.
Nature
The Laguna de Peñahueca is a hypersaline wetland located south of the municipal area of Villacañas (Toledo), beside the road to Villafranca. In summer the water recedes and leaves salt crusts up to a centimetre thick on the bed, a feature that gives it its natural and scenic value. In its surroundings cranes, flamingos and other waterbirds typical of the lagoons of La Mancha can be observed.
Nature
A signposted route linking the Manchegan lagoons, with a short branch towards Laguna Larga from the stage that starts in Villacañas.
Activity
Danzantes del Cristo de la Viga de Villacañas, historical dances declared of Interés Turístico Regional (a regional designation for festivals of touristic interest) that have accompanied the feast of the Santísimo Cristo de la Viga for more than three hundred years, every 1 May. The repertoire consists of seventeen dance pieces accompanied by dulzaina and tamboril, with the dancers dressed in their special costume; one of them, the danzante de la Porra, entertains the audience with spoken verses of humorous tone while the others dance. Preparations for the festival already begin on 19 March.
Activity
Processions declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Regional (a regional designation for festivals of touristic interest) on 18 December 2018, one of the central moments of Villacañas's festive calendar. Several brotherhoods take part, among them that of the Santísimo Cristo del Coloquio, the oldest, founded in 1749, and that of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, from 1770, together with the Hermandad de San Juan Evangelista, that of the Santo Sepulcro and that of Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno, which brings together around 460 brothers. Eight processions are held over the course of the week, with images including carvings by the sculptor Tomás Parés made in the 1940s.
Historical milestone
The name appears in 1229, at the fixing of the boundaries between the archbishop of Toledo and the Order of Saint John, in the form Villar de Cañas. It is already recorded as a council in 1230, although it did not obtain the title of villa until 1557.
Food and drink
Toasted grass pea flour worked in the pan with oil, garlic and paprika until it thickens, served with pork rashers and eaten straight from the vessel. It is the winter dish of the farm houses and of the old grain pits.