Alcalá del Júcar is one of the most spectacular and picturesque villages in the region; its location, the network of its streets and the exceptional landscape that forms the sickle of the Júcar force to contemplate it in all its grandeur. In 1982 it was declared an Artistic Historic Site. The Júcar canyon is cut out in sheets at its base, like a limestone cake that gives it a peculiar appearance. Alcalá de Júcar climbs a rock on a meander of the river, its houses climb it or dig into the earth and ascend to the castle that presides over everything. The castle, of Arab origin and to which it owes part of its place name (al-Qa`la), already has little of its Andalusian roots: vari…