3. The Castle Cave
The Castle Cave
Located beneath Monfragüe Castle, this rocky shelter is a true prehistoric treasure. The Monfragüe Biosphere Reserve includes in its sierras numerous caves and shelters in which examples of cave paintings can be found which range from the Epipalaeolithic epoch some 9000 years ago to the Iron Age some 2500 years ago.
Of all these sites the most important and the only one that can be visited all year round is the Castle Cave, which furthermore has in Torrejón el Rubio it own Cave Art Interpretation Centre. While we explore its 10 metres in depth we can observe anthropomorphic (with varied human forms) and ideomorphic paintings (schematic figures such as bars and dots) painted with the artists’ hands or using small branches or brushes. Thanks to them we can find out how they lived and discover the organisation of the hunter-gatherer tribes which already populated the territory of the Biosphere Reserve in past ages.
Why is it a must?
The experience of seeing with your own eyes what others painted thousands of years ago is something that you will not forget. The feeling that other human beings were there at the dawn of civilisation and that they left their paintings and their beliefs reflected in stone so that more than 8000 years later we can enjoy them is worth a stopover. The guided tour of this "masterpiece of cave art" should not be missed if we are to fully understand and enjoy the experience.
How to get there?
Access to the Castle Cave is from below the Keep, which means it can be visited together with Monfragüe Castle from Wednesday to Sunday and on holidays. As places are very limited, we strongly recommend making a reservation by calling the Tourist Office of Torrejón el Rubio or the Cave Art Interpretation Centre.
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