By Max Milano (Travel Writer & Photographer)
I’m standing on a wobbly iron bridge bolted to the cliffs of Cuenca. They say it’s built in the Eiffel style, but when you step out onto it, it feels more Indiana Jones than Paris. The metal creaks underfoot. Hundreds of feet below, a river snakes through a canyon so deep you can hear it before you see it. Thick brush hides the water, but nothing hides the view.
There they are: the Hanging Houses of Cuenca, clinging to the edge of a sheer rock face like swallows’ nests. Across the gorge stands a medieval monastery turned into a Parador hotel, its stone glowing gold in the sun. The sky is a deep, merciless blue. No clouds. Only vultures circling.
This bridge is cinematic. James Bond could fight a villain here. Maybe the Bond Girl blows up a Hanging House with a hidden charge in her phone, after stabbing the villain with a Spanish ropera sword. Someone should write that. But Cuenca doesn’t need Hollywood. Its real history is more than enough.
A lightning bolt once killed a group of children playing in front of the Cathedral of Cuenca, a church that began as Gothic and ended as Neo-Romanesque after centuries of tinkering. The Spanish Inquisition ran its headquarters from the top of the town, inside the old castle.
Cuenca’s location is pure fortress. Vertical stone. A maze of alleys and switchbacks that lead you past balconies overlooking the canyon. It was nearly impossible to conquer. When the Moors seized it in 711, they held out for centuries in their cliffside stronghold. Alfonso VIII finally starved them out in 1177. The Christians took the city. They built their cathedral. Cuenca became medieval Castile carved into stone.
But Cuenca’s story goes back even further. Long before Moors and knights, before cathedrals and inquisitors, this was Roman land.
“Ex Hispania semper aliquid novi.”
Pliny the Elder, Natural History
“From Hispania, there is always something new.”
Rome Comes to Cuenca
The Romans loved the land around Cuenca. Not just for its cliffs and clean air, but for a translucent stone called lapis specularis, a natural crystal they used as windowpanes before glass was common. This region was packed with it. So, Rome marched inland from Carthago Nova (modern Cartagena), claimed the mines, and planted cities across the Castilian plateau.
Those cities thrived. Trade in lapis brought wealth. With wealth came the full Roman might: forums, amphitheaters, bathhouses, villas with mosaic floors, and circuses for horse races. Plays in Greek. Gladiator fights under the sun.
Cuenca has a small Roman museum inside a medieval house. It has all the loot from the Roman city of Segóbriga. Coins, statuary, amphorae. So we leave the wobbly bridge and head uphill to try to find the museum.
The twisty streets and the views make us get lost, and we end up on the ruins of the old castle on the highest point of the city. This was the headquarters of the Spanish Inquisition (nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, and we certainly didn’t). Here they were, turning gossip about conversos and marranos into burning pyres with “heretics” inside, or unleashing mass slaughter in converso ghettos. Isabel of Castile’s decree in 1492 expelled Spain’s Jews, many of whom had lived here for centuries. Those who converted often faced suspicion and persecution anyway. Later came the forced expulsions of the Moors, driving out the very people who had once held this fortress high above the gorge. Cuenca saw all of it.
Beyond the medieval archway that serves as the gate to the city on the top of the town is a mysterious world called the Enchanted City. This part of Spain is uncannily like Arizona, a big flat high desert, with mesas, canyons, and strange rock formations created by the same river that carved the spectacular gorge where Cuenca is perched. Up in the Enchanted City, rocks shaped like giant mushrooms line a candelabra of natural wonders and sculptures that took the river eons to create. But it’s too hot to go up there in August at noon, so we continue to look for the Roman Museum, downhill this time because we’d overshot it.
Cuenca’s Roman Museum
Cuenca has a small Roman museum tucked inside a medieval house. It holds treasures from the nearby Roman city of Segóbriga: coins, marble statues, amphorae, and fragments of mosaics. The house itself is worth the visit: timber beams, stone walls, and narrow windows. You walk through creaking floors and low ceilings, the medieval setting making the Roman artifacts feel even older, as if you’ve stepped through layered time.
Most of what’s inside demonstrates Segóbriga’s wealth: busts of emperors, funerary stelae with Latin inscriptions, delicate oil lamps, and pottery stamped with makers’ marks from distant corners of the empire. There’s also lapis specularis, the translucent crystal that drew Rome here in the first place, shimmering faintly like ice.
“Hispania, terra fecunda virorum”
Pomponius Mela (1st c. AD), the first Roman geographer from Hispania.
“Hispania, a land fertile in men.”
Segóbriga: Rome in the Wild
Segóbriga rises out of the Castilian plain like a mirage. It was once the center of Roman life in this region, a walled city of 5,000 with an amphitheater, theater, and baths that still stand today. You can walk the same stone streets where local senators strolled in white togas.
The amphitheater is huge, carved right into the hillside, and you can almost hear the roar of the crowd as gladiators clashed. The theater, built under Augustus in the 1st century AD, still has its stage intact. Climb to the top row and you see the Castilian plains stretch for miles, golden and empty. This is Don Quijote country, La Mancha.
Segóbriga is a city of ghosts now. Wind whistles through the ruins. Lizards sun themselves on stones that once lined the forum. Segóbriga didn’t die in a battle. It simply faded. By the 3rd century, Rome’s grip loosened. The mines dried up. People drifted away. Today, only the bones of empire remain.
Valeria: Cuenca’s Roman Predecessor
If Segóbriga is Rome’s grandeur in ruin, Valeria is its poetry. This Roman city sits on a tabletop mountain at the end of a canyon, its cliffs dropping into the Río Gritos far below. The view is staggering. And familiar.
When you stand in Valeria, you see Cuenca’s DNA. The cliffs. The river gorge. The impossible perch of stone and sky. It’s easy to imagine the medieval builders of Cuenca looking here and thinking: Yes. That’s how you make a city unassailable.
Founded in the 1st century BC by Valerius Flaccus, Valeria grew rich on agriculture and trade. Its ruins are intimate: a small forum framed by columns, a basilica where magistrates once ruled, and homes whose mosaic floors still gleam with faded color.
Walk to the edge of Valeria at sunset. The gorge burns orange, the air sharp and thin. You can almost see a Roman merchant trudging up the road with lapis on his mule, or a soldier staring out across the wild Meseta and wondering if Rome could ever really tame it. Today we only see a rock climber working her way up the sheer rock wall. Below, in the floor of the canyon, a few support vehicles await in the fading sun.
Cuenca feels medieval. Its alleys, its cathedral, its castle. But if you drive an hour out into the high plains, you see the bones of an older world, the Roman one that laid the foundations. Segóbriga and Valeria are not just ruins. They are the prologue, and Cuenca is the sequel. Spain is Roman to the core: in its language and laws, in its festivals and its bullrings where blood stains yellow sand, in the wheat shimmering on the Meseta, in the olive groves and black pigs the legions once drove across Iberia. Rome never left. It only changed its name.
Practical Information: Visiting Cuenca and Its Roman Ruins
Getting There
By Train: The fastest way to reach Cuenca from Madrid is on the AVE high-speed train from Madrid’s Atocha Station to Cuenca Fernando Zóbel Station (about 55 minutes).
From Valencia, the AVE takes around 1 hour.
From the Station to the Old Town: Cuenca’s station is outside the city. Local taxis or buses will get you into the historic center in 10–15 minutes.
Car Rental (Essential for Roman Ruins)
The Roman ruins of Segóbriga and Valeria are both rural and not served by public transport. You’ll need a car to visit them.
Tourists: Book through AutoEurope for the best international rates and pickup either in Madrid, Valencia, or Cuenca.
OK Mobility offers affordable longer-term rentals, often with better local rates.
Note that, although not always enforced by car-rental companies, an International Driver’s Permit (IDP) is required for non-EU/EEA residents driving with a foreign driver’s license in Spain.
Driving in Cuenca is straightforward but note that the Old Town streets are narrow and steep. Park in the lower part of town or in the designated parking near the Parador and walk up.
Where to Stay
Parador de Cuenca: A former monastery across the San Pablo Bridge with sweeping views of the Hanging Houses. Atmospheric, historic, and worth it if you want a special stay.
Posada San José: A charming budget option in the Old Town with rooms overlooking the gorge.
NH Ciudad de Cuenca: Modern comfort in the lower town, with easy access by car and bus to the Old Town.
Food in Cuenca
Cuenca’s cuisine is hearty Castilian fare, ideal after climbing its steep streets:
Morteruelo: A rich, pâté-like game meat spread served warm on bread.
Ajoarriero: Salted cod mashed with garlic and olive oil.
Zarajos: Sheep intestines wrapped around a stick and grilled (for the adventurous).
Alajú: A sweet made of honey and nuts, pressed between thin wafers.
Beyond local fare, Cuenca also has international dining:
Indian: Tandoori Masala Cuenca offers curries and tandoori classics near the lower town.
Chinese: Restaurante Chino Hong Kong serves Cantonese-style dishes and take-away.
Spanish Tapas & Wine: Old Town spots like Taberna Albero or Casa Marlo serve great tapas with local wine from La Mancha and Ribera del Júcar.
Best Time to Visit
Spring (April–June) and Fall (September–October) are ideal, with mild weather for walking and exploring ruins.
Summer (July–August): Hot and dry – visit early in the morning or late afternoon, especially for Segóbriga and Valeria.
Winter: Quiet, crisp, and often atmospheric with fog in the gorge.