Barrio de San Martín and the Hoz del Júcar Walk
While visitors crowd the Huécar gorge viewpoints, Cuenca's other gorge — the Hoz del Júcar to the north — remains almost entirely to locals. A waymarked riverside path descends from the Barrio de San Martín neighbourhood into the gorge floor, where the turquoise Júcar river runs between vertical limestone walls up to 100 metres high.
The walk through the gorge
The path begins at the Puente de San Antón, a medieval bridge at the northern edge of the old city, and follows the Júcar downstream for about 2.5 km to the Molino de la Ciudad (an old flour mill, now a picnic area). The trail is flat, shaded by willows and poplars, and passes several natural swimming holes used by locals in summer.
The scale of the gorge is only apparent once you are inside it: the old city walls and the Bishop's Palace loom impossibly far above on the right, while the opposite cliff face is a sheer curtain of rock streaked with mineral colours. It is one of the most dramatic urban gorge walks in Spain and almost no guidebook mentions it.
San Martín neighbourhood above
Before descending, spend 20 minutes in the Barrio de San Martín itself — a tangle of steep lanes, stone stairways and flower-hung balconies that feels more like a village than a city district. The 16th-century Iglesia de San Miguel (not to be confused with the more famous San Pedro) has a beautifully plain Plateresque doorway and is almost always empty.
The neighbourhood bar, Bar El Botijo on Calle San Marcos, serves the coldest beer in the old town and a generous plate of patatas bravas for under €5. The owner has lived in the barrio for 40 years and will point you toward the gorge path if you ask.
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