Tolkien imagined The Shire based on his childhood memories of the counties of Worcestershire and Warwickshire, but you don’t have to go to the center of England to see underground houses and a medieval landscape.
Fuentidueña, about 130 kilometers from the capital, has its own Castilian version thanks to cave cellars reminiscent of hobbit houses. In addition, the silhouette of its ruined castle on top of the hill, the walls over the Duratón River, and the round chimneys peeking out from green meadows have led to it being popularly dubbed “the Hobbiton of Segovia.”
Fuentidueña was once protected by Alfonso VIII, was the domain of Álvaro de Luna, and was the scene of events such as the drafting of Alfonso VIII’s will and the king’s rest after the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. At the top of the enclosure stand the ruins of its castle, a group of towers and walls that still dominate the entire river valley.
The most striking aspect of its recent history is that, in the 1970s, the Ministry of Finance auctioned off the fortress with a starting price of 25,000 pesetas, the equivalent of about 150 euros today, and it passed into private hands. Today, the castle is in ruins and appears on Hispania Nostra’s Red List of endangered cultural heritage, but it remains one of the great symbols of the village and a spectacular viewpoint from which to contemplate the entire hamlet, the hills, and the river winding at its feet.
Cave wineries and “hobbit” houses in the rock
Editorial credit: apgestoso | shutterstock.com
If anything fuels the nickname “Segovian Hobbiton,” it is its cellars carved into the rock, caves dug into the hillsides to make and store wine, with semicircular entrances and small chimneys emerging from the ground, almost like Frodo Baggins’ house in the famous fantasy novel. Many of these cellars are still in use and are spread across different levels of the hillside, among meadows, orchards, and small paths that invite you to take a stroll.
Walls, necropolis, and a traveling Romanesque apse
Beyond the geeky nod, Fuentidueña is a small treasure of Castilian Romanesque architecture. The village preserves the remains of a medieval wall, several access gates, and a necropolis carved into the rock, with anthropomorphic tombs. Among its temples, the Romanesque church of San Miguel and what remains of San Martín stand out. The apse of San Martín was dismantled stone by stone in the 1950s and taken to New York, where it is now part of The Met Cloisters museum after a controversial heritage exchange agreement.
This episode of plundering (considered by many to be one of the last major dismantlings of Spanish heritage during the dictatorship) left San Martín in ruins, but its history adds even more uniqueness to the village. Strolling through Fuentidueña means encountering Romanesque façades, palaces such as that of Pedro de Luna, and corners where time seems to stand still, in a historic center declared a Site of Cultural Interest.
The music that accompanies this getaway
If, while you are planning your getaway or imagining those green meadows in your head , the melody of The Fellowship of the Ring plays in your mind , now you have the opportunity to hear it live.
Candlelight: The Lord of the Rings comes to Madrid, and you can take a melodic journey through the three films that are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year. The venue chosen for these concerts is the Hotel Wellington, and tickets are already on sale.