Cañete

People have lived in and around Cañete since the Upper Palaeolithic, when hunter-gatherers left rock paintings and engravings in the surrounding sierra. Celtiberian settlements followed, then scattered Roman farmsteads. The town's walls, in something close to their current form, went up during Muslim rule around the height of the Caliphate of Córdoba — making Cañete a strong example of Peninsular Islamic fortified settlement. It was probably already in Christian hands by 1177, when Alfonso VIII of Castile took nearby Cuenca.

The town was the birthplace of Álvaro de Luna, the powerful Castilian noble who served as Constable of Castile, Grand Master of the Order of Santiago, and chief minister to King Juan II. He is buried in Toledo Cathedral.

Later centuries brought repeated conflict. Comunero rebels rose and were crushed here in 1520. During the Napoleonic invasion of 1808, the whole area fought a guerrilla war against French forces, with the sierra finally liberated in 1812. The First Carlist War left perhaps the deepest mark: between 1834 and 1837, Carlist troops held the town, remodelling the castle and reinforcing the walls. The Civil War brought further damage — the parish church and two local chapels were ransacked in 1936 — and anti-Franco guerrillas remained active in the sierra for years after 1939.