Logbook · 8 places

What to see and do in Menasalbas

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

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 2 Nature · 1 Activities · 2 Historical milestones · 1 Food and drink

When to go to Menasalbas: festival calendar

February: La Encamisada de Menasalbas (February 1)

How far each place is from the centre of Menasalbas

Hermitage of la Virgen de la Salud de Menasalbas 500 m
Corral de Cantos 18 km

Towns near Menasalbas

What to see in Las Ventas con Peña Aguilera 5.5 km · 10 places
What to see in Cuerva 7 km · 4 places
What to see in Gálvez 7.4 km · 4 places
What to see in Totanés 9.8 km · 3 places
What to see in San Pablo de los Montes 11 km · 7 places
What to see in San Martín de Montalbán 11 km · 4 places
What to see in Pulgar 13 km · 3 places
What to see in Noez 15 km · 3 places

Spain › Castilla-La Mancha › Toledo › Montes de Toledo › Menasalbas

What to see and do in Menasalbas

Menasalbas
Village
Municipality of the comarca of Montes de Toledo, in the province of Toledo, first mentioned in a royal diploma of 1155 and raised to town status by Philip II in 1565, from which period come the rollo and the enlargement of the parish church; it preserves the chapel of the Virgen de la Salud, of the mid-sixteenth century and considered one of the best examples of rural Gothic in the comarca, and in its district lie the Torcón reservoirs, which supply water to the city of Toledo.
Hermitage of la Virgen de la Salud de Menasalbas
Monument
The hermitage of the Virgen de la Salud, on Calle Progreso in Menasalbas (Toledo), was built in the mid-16th century. Its thick ashlar walls and sturdy buttresses make it one of the finest examples of rural Gothic architecture in the Montes de Toledo. Inside, the ribbed vault of the main chapel stands out, closed by a pointed transverse arch, while the rest of the building is covered with a recently restored wooden coffered ceiling. Until the 19th century it served as a hospital for the poor and pilgrims.
Torcón Reservoirs
Nature
The Torcón I and II reservoirs, set among hills of holm oak and rockrose, supply water to the city of Toledo and form a landscape of great scenic value.
Corral de Cantos
Nature
Corral de Cantos is one of the highest peaks in the Montes de Toledo, at 1,421 metres; only the Rocigalgo, at 1,447 metres, rises higher in the whole province. Its base is Palaeozoic, made up of quartzites and gneisses formed by the Variscan orogeny between 380 and 280 million years ago, which accounts for the exposed scarps and boulder fields of metamorphic rock. The vegetation combines Mediterranean forest of holm oaks and scrub oaks with a scrubland of rockrose and heather; the fauna includes deer, wild boar, foxes, cinereous vulture and griffon vulture, and the Iberian lynx is occasionally sighted. The usual ascent route starts from the hermitage of La Milagra, at 840 metres, and climbs a forest track to the Madroña pass: 8.4 kilometres one way and 581 metres of positive elevation gain.
La Encamisada de Menasalbas
Activity
Tradition in which the brothers of the confraternity ride through the village on horseback with their mounts decked out, as part of the municipality's winter celebrations.
Menasalbas in the 1155 document
Historical milestone
A royal diploma of 1155 cites Menasalbas among the territories that Alfonso VII distributed after the Christian advance through the Montes. It is the first written mention of the place, then little more than a farmstead on the edge of the sierra.
The town charter of Menasalbas
Historical milestone
Felipe II granted Menasalbas the title of villa in 1565, with which the council gained its own jurisdiction as against the city of Toledo. From the same period are the jurisdictional column and the enlargement of the parish church.
The shepherd's migas of the sierra
Food and drink
Stale bread crumbled and worked in the pan with garlic, oil and paprika, food of the shepherds who tended the thousands of head of livestock of the district. They are accompanied by torreznos, chorizo and, in season, grapes or melon.