Hita

The source material for Hita's history is too fragmentary to support a reliable paragraph. The available text references a mid-period population of 1,000 inhabitants and a description in Pascual Madoz's geographical dictionary of Spain, but the surrounding context is missing. NONE would be cleaner than guesswork here.

The church of San Juan Bautista was built between two centuries in Mudéjar style, with three naves and a polygonal apse. Its tower is Herrerian. Part of the roof collapsed during the Civil War, but the coffered ceilings above the high altar and the Chapel of the Virgin survived intact, featuring octagonal carved panels. Restoration work between 2002 and 2004 also exposed the original stone and brick walls. The church now houses a collection of burial slabs from the ruined medieval church of San Pedro.

San Pedro itself was a noble burial church through several centuries, later becoming an arciprestazgo seat. Its sandstone ashlar façade survives. Destroyed in the Civil War, the ruin has served as an open-air theatre for the Medieval Festival of Hita since 2018.

The Plaza Mayor, known also as the Plaza del Arcipreste, was a medieval market. Most of its houses belonged to Hita's Jewish merchants until their expulsion in 1492. A house called El Alboroque de Samuel Levy, identified by historian Manuel Criado del Val, is thought to have been the home and shop of a Jewish merchant and friend of the royal treasurer, expelled that same year. The plaza retains a distinctive double-bay arcade and a high wall separating it from the upper-level Plaza del Ayuntamiento.

The Puerta de Santa María is the main gate of the town walls, commissioned in 1441 by the first Marquis of Santillana. A fine example of Gothic military architecture, it has a pointed arch, two corner turrets, a continuous machicolation and a crenellated parapet, topped by the Mendoza family coat of arms. Damaged in the Civil War, it was partly rebuilt in 1965 and fully restored in 2005.