La Hoya del Villar hillfort (Villanueva de Alcorón): excavations in progress

A hillfort in full excavation

In the municipality of Villanueva de Alcorón, beside the track leading toward Peñalén, lies one of the most active archaeological sites in Alto Tajo. The castro de la Hoya del Villar has been investigated since 2021 as part of a general project on the castrification of Alto Tajo and the Serranía de Cuenca: how, from the Bronze Age to the end of the Second Iron Age, these lands organized themselves with fortified settlements on high ground. It is directed by Dr Jesús Francisco Torres Martínez and Dr Santiago David Domínguez Solera (Imbeac and Heroica teams), driven by the Town Hall and financed by the Diputación de Guadalajara. In 2025 the fifth fieldwork campaign took place.

What has appeared

The hillfort has the essential features of Celtiberian fortified settlements: a dry-stone rampart and rectangular houses built against its inner face. In the Second Iron Age it may have sheltered between eight and ten families. The big surprise has been the entrance: an angled elbow bastion reinforced with a tower, which according to the directors indicates a greater defensive and architectural scale than expected for a hillfort of this size. In addition, materials from the Late Bronze Age or First Iron Age have emerged, from around 3,000 years ago, showing the site was already occupied before the Celtiberian stage.

One hillfort among many

La Hoya del Villar was part of a settlement network with capitals or oppida, medium and small hillforts, and fortified farmsteads. To explore that world, the narrative of the Celtiberians of Alto Tajo surveys the region’s hillforts. Very close by are the Sima de Alcorón and Sendero 7 of the lime kilns.

Visiting it

We must be clear: of all the Celtiberian sites in the Señorío, today only two are genuinely prepared for visitors, El Ceremeño in Herrería and Peña Moñuz in Olmeda de Cobeta. La Hoya del Villar is scarcely adapted for the public: unarranged, almost without signs, and with what can be seen with the naked eye very difficult to interpret without assistance. If you approach, do not stray from the paths, do not climb onto the walls, and do not pick up anything from the ground. It is actively being excavated; the Town Hall has announced route improvements and informational days in summer.