Logbook · 8 places

What to see and do in Villarrubia de Santiago

What to see and do in Villarrubia de Santiago (Mesa de Ocaña, Toledo): 8 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 2 Nature · 1 Activities · 2 Curiosities

When to go to Villarrubia de Santiago: festival calendar

September: Festivities of Nuestra Señora del Castellar (Del 5 al 10 de septiembre)

How far each place is from the centre of Villarrubia de Santiago

Gypsum Steppes of the Tagus Valley in Villarrubia de Santiago 7.4 km

Towns near Villarrubia de Santiago

What to see in Noblejas 6 km · 8 places
What to see in Villatobas 10 km · 8 places
What to see in Ocaña 11 km · 25 places
What to see in Colmenar de Oreja 14 km · 8 places
What to see in Villamanrique de Tajo 14 km · 2 places
What to see in Dosbarrios 15 km · 7 places
What to see in Santa Cruz de la Zarza 15 km · 11 places
What to see in Villaconejos 17 km · 4 places

Spain › Castilla-La Mancha › Toledo › Mesa de Ocaña › Villarrubia de Santiago

What to see and do in Villarrubia de Santiago

Villarrubia de Santiago
Village
Villarrubia de Santiago is a municipality in the comarca of Mesa de Ocaña, in the province of Toledo, bordering the Tagus to the north. Its name may derive from Villarroja, and its founding goes back to 1204, when the Santiago-order master Hernán González de Marañón granted the charter of Ocaña to the settlements formed around the old commandery of Biezma. On the site of the castle of Tormón, abandoned in the time of Alfonso VII, a church was built where tradition places the apparition of the Virgen del Castellar. It preserves the church of San Bartolomé, with a retable transitional between the Renaissance and the Baroque, and the hermitage of the Castellar, from the 19th century; its municipal area forms part of the protected area of the gypsum outcrops of the Tagus valley. It has 2,583 inhabitants (INE 2025).
Church of San Bartolomé de Villarrubia de Santiago
Monument
Parish church dedicated to San Bartolomé, patron of Villarrubia de Santiago, built in dressed stone on a Latin-cross plan, 47 metres long, 23 metres wide and 18 metres high. The central nave rests on eight Doric half-columns with round arches and vaults, and the crossing is covered by a hemispherical dome 25 metres high; the tower, of ashlar and rubblework, has five tiers. It preserves a polygonal five-sided main altarpiece, in Herrerian style transitional between the Renaissance and the Baroque, carved in wood and gilded with gold-estofado panels, with pieces from the 15th and 16th centuries.
Hermitage of el Castellar
Monument
A 19th-century hermitage built on the site of the old Castillo del Tormón, a 12th-century fortification abandoned in the time of Alfonso VII. It is the sanctuary of the Virgen del Castellar, patroness of Villarrubia de Santiago, located about 5 kilometres south of the village, on a rocky hill beside the Tajo, near the sodium sulphate mines. Its interior consists of a nave divided into three bays covered by a barrel vault with lunettes. The patronal festival is held from 5 to 10 September, with a procession and solemn Mass on the 8th: the Virgin comes down from the hermitage on the back of a mule to a chapel situated 1.5 kilometres away, from where she is carried in procession to the parish church. On the last Sunday of September the Bajada pilgrimage is also held.
Gypsum Steppes of the Tagus Valley in Villarrubia de Santiago
Nature
The gypsum steppes (yesares) of the Tajo valley are a protected area within the Natura 2000 network, declared a special area of conservation, extending across seven zones in the provinces of Toledo and Cuenca, including the municipal area of Villarrubia de Santiago. They bring together the best and most extensive examples of gypsum steppe in the Tajo valley and its tributaries, with an alternation of gypsum outcrops, saline marls, limestones and river terraces, between 500 and 822 metres in altitude. Its vegetation, rich in a large number of endemic species, combines gypsum steppe, halo-nitrophilous scrub and saline albardinal grasslands with holm oak woods, kermes oak scrub and rosemary scrub; notable species include Vella pseudocytisus and Sisymbrium cavanillesianum. On the river cliffs of the left bank an important population of peregrine falcon nests.
Villarroja, the Red Earth
Curiosity
A document of 1576 explains that the town is thought to be called Villarrubia because much of the village and of the land around it is reddish, alluding to the ruddy tone of the soil.
The 1204 Founding
Curiosity
The town was founded in 1204 by Hernán González de Marañón, master of the Order of Santiago, who granted it the charter (fuero) of Ocaña, which explains the municipality's name. The new settlement was organised around the old encomienda of Biezma, gathering the already existing villages around it under the new municipal regime.
Festivities of Nuestra Señora del Castellar
Activity
Patronal festival of Villarrubia de Santiago (Toledo) in honour of Nuestra Señora del Castellar, from 5 to 10 September. It begins with fireworks and a parade of floats; the following day the image is carried on foot to the Castellar and returns on the backs of mules to within 1.5 km of the village, to enter in procession to the parish church, where a bull encierro is held in the afternoon. On the central day, with a municipal procession and solemn Mass, there are also bullfights and young-bull fights, a flower offering, a parade by the band La Retreta and children's attractions until the final traca. At the end of the month another patronal pilgrimage, La Bajada, is also held, on the last Sunday of September.
The necropolis of Hoyo de la Serna
Nature
In 1994 a Carpetanian necropolis of importance was discovered at the site of Hoyo de la Serna, documenting the pre-Roman settlement of the moorlands above the Tajo before the arrival of Rome and the later Santiaguista resettlement.