Turismo Monturque - Tourist Guide

The Art Gallery Jesús López was opened at the end of 2018 and it shows the art collection from a neighbour of Monturque, painter, art collector and poet, who temporarily exhibit part of his painting collection. The art gallery has a total of 83 representative paintings, mainly from cordoban painters. A space completely restyled to share with local people and visitors and to fulfill the wish of Jesús López.

The Medieval Castle sits on the hill of Monturque. The castle´s origins date back to Roman times. The current construction, however, was built by Arabs and Christians. Under the rule of Ferdinand the third it came to the Christians in 1240, and it had several owners Pedro I and Martín López de Córdoba, among others. The archaeological site includes two towers, a wall and the army courtyard where remains from the Prehistory and a roman cistern were found. The largest tower (la torre del homenaje) was built by Arabs, although it was restored in the nineteen century. After the Conquest, Christians built the wall and the five-sided defensive tower (la torre Pentagonal) located at southern edge. Along the wall around the army courtyard you can see some marks from the quarry worker in order to show their work and to be paid. Throughout History, the Castle was important for the village of Monturque, since its strategic location contributed to assuring the village´s security. From top of the tower you can enjoy spectacular secenic views.

Sitting on top of the hill and overlooking the area, the archaeological site, named Criptopórtico, dates back to roman times. Nearby the roman forum there were important buildings such as the temple or the public building called Basilica. You can still see remains from this public building, a basement that was necessary to level the floor and also used for storing. You should image the floor on top, luxurious place in front of the roman temple. Next the public building it was found remains from the roman baths, currently hidden under the pergola on the left. These public baths were fed by water collected in the cisterns, which allowed roman citizens to meet each other, to enjoy the bath or to do sport. This place provides a wonderful view of Monturque and its surroundings completely covered with olives trees or vineyards at the foot of the hill where this village is located.

The Roman Cisterns are one of the world´s most values examples of hydraulic constructions. They are the unique visible cisterns in all Spain. Visiting the cisterns give you a glimpse of how it was at roman times, it looks back on more than 2.000 thousands years of history. Around the first century of our time romans built the cistern under the roman forum, the central area in the ancient city of Monturque, where they collected rainwater with a capacity for 850.000 liters. The cisterns are divided into three galleries with twelve connected rooms through little doors to allow the water circulation. The water passed through a drain pipe channel and finally kept in a well nearby roman baths, due to the proximity between the drain pipe channel and the roman baths, it is supposed that part of the water was used to provide the baths. It is known that the graveyard was built in 1804. However, the cistern was discovered in 1885 while excavations to make a common grave, due to an important epidemic suffered at that time. Firstly, the sand was extracted and remains of buildings were found. Later, the gallery was cleaned. After the cleaning the mayor decided to take advantage of this large building to use it as a graveyard. Signs of the niches can still be seen in one of the rooms. Romans used two different materials: walls were mainly made of concrete, which was covered with a waterproof cement to avoid water leaks. A majestic building, almost perfectly preserved shows us the importance of Monturque at that time.

This cemetery is one of the most significant graveyards of Spain. It is included in different graveyards routes, for instance it is one of the cemeteries which takes part in the European Cemeteries Routes, an initiative to show these places as opened air museums. Its architecture seems like an Andalusian courtyard surrounded by niches. The singularity of this graveyard is the historical monument located underground, although from above, visitors can only see a kind of air vents to ventilate the twelve rooms below. St. Rafael is the old cemetery and it has not more space, for this reason a new cemetery was built out the village in 2005. It is known that St Rafael was built in 1804 and it got a separated area where suicide victims were buried. This space is still visible and it is named the Hanged Men Courtyard. In 2008 was upgraded and it allows visitors to see the drain pain channel, whose length is 28 meters, and also the wall used to draw water from the Roman Cisterns. The Cemetery receives plenty of visitors especially in November because of the All Saint´s Day. As we mentioned before, an important touristic event, named Mundamortis, takes place these days with a wide range of activities such as concerts, theatrical guided tours and much more.

Located on top of the hill, the historical museum was opened to the public in 1997 and it allows visitors to know about the past of this village. The mission of creating the local museum was to protect, preserve and promote the historical heritage of Monturque. The Museum keeps inside a large amount of remains discovered in the last years, from fossils, prehistorical ceramic, coins, columns to a mockup which shows the most important roman buildings in the roman town of Monturque. Most of these remains have been found unexpectedly after tasks of upgrading streets, houses or farming, a good part of them are inside different glass cabinet organized by ages, Prehistory, Metal Age, Roman Times and Middle Ages However the best preserved remains were taken to the Archeological Museum of Córdoba. Some remains from Prehistory are a hand mills, axes, arrowheads, bone ornaments; from Metal Age stands out the decorated ceramic; from Romans plenty of ceramic, columns, capitals, coins, amphoras and an interesting marble piece with two faces, Jano, used as a fountain are shown. Finally the itinerary ends with the Middle Age, Islamic ceramic and the exceptional whistle which looks like a little horse. It is very recommendable to continue the itinerary to know the monuments that all these cultures left in Monturque. The Roman Cistern is the next place, a hydraulic building which allows you to take back 2000 years ago, a huge construction where romans collected rain water. In addition, during the route you will see an archeological site, named Criptopórtico, in the Viewpoint, it belongs to the basement of a roman public building. Finally, you will see the tower inside the castle, which is the unique remain from Muslims, used to communicate each other.

Welcome to Monturque, the Andalusia geographical center. This village is located on top of a hill, where no more than 2000 inhabitants live. It is a beautiful place to discover plenty of impressive remains, since Monturque has been witness to different periods: prehistory, Roman or Muslim. During the Roman Times the village reached its greatest time because of the Roman Cisterns, found under the graveyard named St. Rafael. In addition, Muslims built the tower that you can see later, almost disappeared by Christians after the conquest of the castle in 1240. Monturque offers cultural guided tours to have the opportunity to visit the Local Museum, the Roman Cisterns, an incredible Viewpoint next the Church, an Art Gallery from a local painter and the Castle. On the other hand, you can enjoy hiking around the countryside within 3 km. The Hiking Route Vinum et Aqua includes natural areas surrounded by olives trees, vineyard or typical squares, streets and fountains. Apart from the material heritage, Monturque celebrates lots of festivities such as the local fair in August, Semana Santa and other culture and touristic events like the Medieval Night in August or Mundamortis between October and November. Mundamortis is an experience to discover the graveyard during the night while a classic music concert plays, to live a roman funerary ritual and other activities related to the death. You will learn much more throughout the audioguide route. We hope you enjoy it.