Villages of Cañamares and Santa María

The villages of Cañamares and Santa María They are part of the Villahermosa area and allow us to approach a different heritage reality within the Campo de Montiel, more linked to rural settlement and the historical articulation of the territory than to the great monumental complexes.

Both settlements are situated in a landscape of remarkable environmental value, where roads, small clusters of houses and agricultural spaces help to understand a form of space occupation marked by historical continuity and a close relationship with the environment.

Cañamares, one of the oldest villages in Campo de Montiel, It originally belonged to Montiel along with Torres and Santa Cruz de los Cáñamos, later becoming part of the jurisdiction of Villahermosa.

Saint Mary, For its part, it also appears as one of the populations added to the municipality, within that network of small dependent settlements that complete the territorial history of the region.

Although their population has been reduced, both hamlets reflect very well the administrative and demographic evolution of the Campo de Montiel, where alongside the main towns there coexisted villages and smaller settlements with a complementary function within the historical landscape.

The visit to Cañamares and Santa María has a distinct character landscape and territorial. More than for the presence of a large isolated monument, its interest lies in the possibility of getting to know a more intimate scale of the Campo de Montiel, where the atmosphere of small rural settlements still survives.

Visiting these places allows one to better understand the internal diversity of the region and appreciate how its historical identity was also built from hamlets and settlements with small populations, but fully integrated into the memory of the territory.