Cuenca

The ridge between the Júcar and Huécar gorges was a natural fortress. After the Muslim conquest of the early 8th century a stronghold called Kunka was built there, ringed by a wall about a kilometre long, and by the 10th century it had become a seat of the Arabised Berber family of the Banū Zennūn. The name may come from that fortress or from the Latin conca, a river basin. In 1177 Alfonso VIII of Castile, with allies from León and Aragon and the military orders of Calatrava and Santiago, he besieged the town from Epiphany, 6 January, and captured it on 21 September, the feast of Saint Matthew, still celebrated as the city's festival.

Castile built a cathedral from 1182, in an Anglo-Norman Gothic style favoured by Alfonso's English queen, Eleanor, and the town grew rich on wool and cloth, reaching perhaps 15,000 people in the 16th century. A Jewish community lived here from 1177 until the expulsion of 1492. A long decline followed; in the 18th century Charles IV banned textile production in Cuenca to protect the Royal Tapestry Factory, and the population fell sharply.

The railway from Aranjuez and a timber industry brought a modest recovery, and the population passed 10,000, though the cathedral's tower collapsed in 1902. In the Civil War the city stayed on the Republican side. In 1966 the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art opened in the hanging houses, and in 1996 UNESCO listed the old town as a World Heritage Site.

Cuenca's modern reputation owes a great deal to art. In the 1960s the painter Fernando Zóbel looked for a home for a museum of Spanish abstract art, and his friend Gustavo Torner suggested the hanging houses; the museum opened there in 1966 with the two as co-chairmen, and in 1980 Zóbel gave its collection to the Juan March Foundation. The high-speed station now carries his name. The city has since added a concert hall and a science museum, and bid unsuccessfully to be European Capital of Culture in 2016.

Religion and its rituals shape the calendar. Holy Week, a fiesta of International Tourist Interest, is the most important event of the year, and its best-known procession, the Camino del Calvario, called Las Turbas, sets out from the church of El Salvador on Good Friday morning, with a crowd accompanying the image of Jesus the Nazarene through the streets. The city's Religious Music Week, held in the church of San Miguel and elsewhere, brings sacred music to the same days.

Saint Julian, the second bishop of Cuenca, is the patron saint, honoured on 28 January, and the September festivities of San Mateo mark the anniversary of the conquest; at their opening the peñas, local clubs, walk up to the Plaza Mayor while residents throw water on them from the balconies.

About 53,600 people lived in the municipality in 2025, making Cuenca one of the smaller provincial capitals in Spain, though its municipal territory, about 911 square kilometres, is one of the largest in the country. Most people live in the new town to the west and south of the old ridge, which became the city's centre in the post-war decades; the old town has fewer residents and more visitors.

The economy rests above all on tourism, which has grown since the old town's World Heritage listing in 1996 and with improved road and rail links. Cuenca is the capital of its province and still the hub of road links for much of it. The high-speed line has made Madrid and Valencia easy to reach.

The day follows the Spanish rhythm, with lunch the main meal, and the shops of Calle Carretería in the new town are the centre of everyday business. Summer nights at this altitude are much cooler than the days, and the old town is at its busiest during Holy Week and the festivals.

Cuenca's cooking is built on game, led by partridge, and lamb. Its best-known dish is morteruelo, a kind of pâté made from several meats, mainly hare, partridge, hen and pork. Zarajos, made from lamb, and lamb chops cooked over embers are local favourites, and ajoarriero is a dish of salt cod and garlic, the garlic often from Las Pedroñeras in the same province. Gazpachos galianos, game served over flat unleavened bread, and migas are also eaten across the province.

For dessert there is alajú, a sweet of Arab origin made with honey, almonds and other nuts and grated orange peel. The local drink is resolí, a liqueur made with aguardiente, coffee, cinnamon, orange peel and sugar.

Eating out happens mainly in the bars and restaurants of the new town, where tapas are served with drinks, and in the old town around the Plaza Mayor and along the gorge, where restaurants serve the traditional dishes to visitors. Manchego cheese, made only from sheep's milk, comes from villages in the province such as Villarejo de Fuentes.