Roman city of Valeria

We drive a little south of Cuenca until we reach the small village of Valeria. The village is old and small – we notice how small the village is when we arrive at one spot the houses are really close together transforming the road into a single lane going pass the houses. Fortunately the village is small so the traffic is light and we easily get to the center of the village.

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We park at the central square of the modern part of the village which has the church of the village and a tapas bar. We drop into the tapas bar to get some lunch. We assume this is the best tapas bar of the village – which is helped by the fact this is probably the only tapas bar of the village. I guess all tapas bars around Spain actually do serve pretty good food – we still haven’t tried to get a really bad meal at any tapas bar in Spain.

We leave the car behind and walk up some small roads to the ancient part of the village. The old roman village of Valeria. The village dates back to the first century BC and it is located on the top of a hill with a good view of the village below.

We go into the old village – there are hardly any other visitors at the ancient village so we can walk around it and really enjoy the area.

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The village has some old ruins but it isn’t one of the most spectacular ancient roman sites I have been to. There is none of the large ruins you know from other places with the typical theatres or amphitheaters. There is only a selection of small villages with different buildings with some walls still standing.

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The ruins aren’t the most spectacular. But they do have a nice location on the top of the hill with some great views and it is enjoyable to walk around as the only tourist out here on the day. So we enjoy the visit but after walking around the area it is time to get back to the car and drive on.