Cuenca
Houses hanging over a gorge, an hour by train from Madrid
- When to go
- October 14° · 9 rainy days
- Per day
- €€€price 3 of 5
- How many days
- 1days
- For you
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- Right now
Cuenca was built on a narrow ridge between two gorges, and when it ran out of room, it built out over the edge. Hence the casas colgadas — houses whose balconies hang over the drop. Only a few remain, but they've become the symbol of the whole city.
The best view of them isn't from inside but from the San Pablo bridge across the gorge. From there you see the whole cluster of houses with the cathedral behind. The only way inside is the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art, housed in the hanging houses themselves: entry is free, it's closed on Mondays, and on Sundays it only opens until 14:30.
The train from Madrid takes about an hour, which makes Cuenca a classic day trip. Stay the night and you have the old town after the day-trippers have gone.
What to see in Cuenca
The Casas Colgadas
Wooden balconies over the Huécar gorge — the last of what were once many more hanging houses.
The San Pablo bridge
An iron bridge with a plank floor, about 110 metres long and 40 metres above the river, opened in 1903 where a 16th-century stone bridge once stood. It leads to the former San Pablo monastery.
The cathedral
One of the first Gothic cathedrals in Spain, with an oddly unfinished façade — the bell tower collapsed in 1902 and was never rebuilt.
The Museum of Abstract Art
Founded by the painter Fernando Zóbel in 1966 around his collection of Spanish abstract painting; the Fundación Juan March has run it since 1980.
Ciudad Encantada
A park of rocks eroded into mushrooms and animals, some thirty kilometres from town, about 40 minutes by car.
Two things you probably did not know
The hanging houses of Cuenca stand on the lip of a cliff above the Huecar gorge, with wooden balconies out over the drop. They date from the fifteenth century, and the San Pablo bridge across the gorge is iron and wood and sways as you cross.
One of the hanging houses holds the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art, opened in 1966. The painter Fernando Zobel brought his collection here because he wanted a gallery far from Madrid, and it is now one of the reasons people come to Cuenca.
Ready for Cuenca?
Within reach from here
Places sorted by straight-line distance from Cuenca — day trips or weekends.
Spain
→A country where dinner is at ten and the city wakes up as everywhere else turns the lights off
Portugal
→A country that spent centuries looking at the ocean instead of the Europe behind it
France
→From Paris the TGV reaches Lyon, Bordeaux and Strasbourg in about two hours — France is chosen by direction, not by city
All 277 places we write about sit on one page — narrow them down by continent, country, price or what you are travelling for.
Within reach from here: Albarracín, Madrid and Valencia
See how much of that actually suits you — or pin Cuenca if you have been.
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