Logbook · 7 places

What to see and do in Recas

What to see and do in Recas (La Sagra, Toledo): 7 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 3 Monuments · 1 Nature · 1 Activities · 1 Curiosities

When to go to Recas: festival calendar

September: Festivities of la Virgen de la Oliva (Del 1 al 10 de septiembre)

How far each place is from the centre of Recas

Ruins of the castle of Canales 4.3 km

Towns near Recas

What to see in Yunclillos 3.5 km · 5 places
What to see in Lominchar 4.4 km · 4 places
What to see in Cabañas de la Sagra 6.1 km · 4 places
What to see in Villaluenga de la Sagra 6.8 km · 6 places
What to see in Yuncler 7 km · 5 places
What to see in Chozas de Canales 7.1 km · 5 places
What to see in Palomeque 7.7 km · 5 places
What to see in Camarenilla 8.4 km · 4 places

Spain › Castilla-La Mancha › Toledo › La Sagra › Recas

What to see and do in Recas

Recas
Village
Recas, whose name derives from recuas — from the Arabic rákab, caravan —, is a municipality in the comarca of La Sagra (Toledo) with 5037 inhabitants (INE 2025), crossed from north to south by the Guadarrama river, in whose old town residents of more than forty nationalities live together as a result of immigration arriving since the 1990s. Roman mosaics have been found at the Peronilla site, where the original town centre stood, and the place name Recas is first cited in a donation by Alfonso VII to the archbishop of Toledo, to whom he gave the castle of Canales, of which early medieval ruins remain today in the municipal area. Its main monument is the church of San Pedro Apóstol, from the 15th century, and it also preserves the hermitage of San Blas, its patron, whose feasts are celebrated on 3 and 4 February.
Church of San Pedro Apóstol de Recas
Monument
The church of San Pedro Apóstol, the main monument in Recas's historic center, in the Toledo comarca of La Sagra, dates from the 15th century and has a basilical plan built of Toledo-style rubblework, with its interior whitewashed. Roofed with wooden framework and a coffered ceiling that decorates the presbytery, it has two sacristies and two side chapels: one with modernist stained-glass windows dedicated to the Immaculate Conception and Eucharistic motifs, and another, octagonal in plan on the Gospel side, with a dome decorated with frescoes and a marble floor. Already in the 21st century a chapel dedicated to the Virgen del Olivo was added, with an altarpiece inspired by the town's former Franciscan convent.
Hermitage of San Blas de Recas
Monument
A hermitage in Recas, in the Toledo Sagra, dedicated to San Blas, patron saint of the town, built forming a street together with the village houses. Festivities are held in his honor from 2 to 4 February: on the eve, the image is carried from the hermitage to the parish church, blessed bread rolls are handed out and a bonfire is lit; on the 3rd there is Mass and a procession, and on the 4th, San Blas Chico day, with children's games, floats decorated with vegetables and costumed groups parading through the streets. The festive event is in the process of being declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Regional (a regional tourist-interest designation).
Ruins of the castle of Canales
Monument
A fortification dating from the 8th century, of which only ruins remain today within a private estate. In 1126 it passed into the hands of Alfonso VII, who ceded it in 1143 to the Archbishop of Toledo. Peter I dismantled it in 1368 and the Toledo diocese later rebuilt it, although by around 1517 it was already neglected, with its towers in ruins. After the 19th-century disentailment, it passed to the Cabañas Caballero family, the current owner of the land.
The Guadarrama River as it flows through Recas
Nature
The Guadarrama river crosses the municipal territory of Recas from north to south, forming the main river axis of its 31 square kilometers. For generations it was a gathering place for residents' leisure and bathing, who traditionally visited its banks on Saint James's Day, 25 July. According to Madoz's 19th-century description, numerous vegetable gardens, fig trees, pomegranate trees, and olive trees then spread along its banks.
Festivities of la Virgen de la Oliva
Activity
The festivities of the Virgen de la Oliva are held in Recas from 1 to 9 September, with 8 September as the main day following a novena in her honor. The program includes ground-painting contests, a parade of floats on the 6th, fireworks on the 7th, night-time open-air dances in the squares, and a giant paella on the 9th, closing with a final firework display. According to tradition, the devotion dates back to a hermitage predating the Muslim invasion, whose faithful hid the venerated images among the branches of a nearby olive tree; after the Reconquest, legend has it that King Alfonso VI witnessed a Marian apparition beside the tree, and that the olive tree came to sweat oil from its knots and joints, which gave rise to the pilgrimages.
Recas, a village of forty nationalities
Curiosity
Heavy immigration since the 1990s means that people of more than forty different nationalities live together in Recas, a singular case in the comarca.