Beteta

Human occupation around Beteta goes back to the Bronze Age, with cave sites including the Cueva de la Ramera — accessible and decorated with stalactites — and a Celtiberian settlement at Los Castillejos, where traces of fortification walls, adobe, and smelted iron can still be found above the Valsalobre river.

The Romans worked local salt flats and mined iron at Cueva del Hierro, rating it among the best in Hispania, and built a branch road through the valley of Huerta Bellida to carry it out. Under Muslim rule Beteta fell within the jurisdiction of the lords of Albarracín, then became a contested frontier point between Cuenca, Albarracín, and Molina de Aragón. Alfonso VIII and the lords of Molina granted it more than once to the bishopric of Sigüenza before Alfonso and Mafalda of Molina sold the town and its seven villages to the Council of Cuenca in 1253. After the execution of the constable Álvaro de Luna, the estates passed to the Carrillo de Albornoz family, who held Beteta and its villages — El Tobar, La Cueva del Hierro, Valsalobre, Masegosa, Lagunaseca, Santa María del Val, Valtablado, Pinilla, and Durón.

Medieval and early modern prosperity rested on livestock. When the Mesta, Spain's powerful shepherds' guild, was established, the Cañada Real drove close to three hundred thousand animals through Beteta's high pastures each year, and the town's wool was exported to Italy. Timber cutting added to the economy in later centuries. By the mid-19th century, when the Carlist general Cabrera sent five hundred men to fortify the town as a strategic stronghold, Beteta had around ninety houses, a prison, a palace, a primary school, and a parish church, alongside two mills owned by the Marquis of Ariza, a brandy distillery, and several potteries. The town also has a water bottling plant, Agua de Beteta.

Beteta's main monuments are the Castillo de Rochafrida, the parish church dedicated to the Asunción, and the Ermita de the Virgen de la Rosa. The central plaza is porticoed, with a fountain beside the church. The former palace of the Marquises of Ariza now serves as a sports centre, and a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus stands near the castle.