Alto Tajo and headwaters · memory of the water
Bullones: from Picaza and the salt pans to the Gallo
Descending from the Montes de Picaza to the Gallo past the historic salt works of Terzaga and Armallá: the salt river of the Señorío.
- Headwaters
- Montes de Picaza.
- downstream
- Gallo, along its left bank.
The Bullones descends from the Montes de Picaza and empties into the Gallo along its left bank. At Terzaga, a village at 1,190 metres, salt pans first exploited by the medieval Lords of Lara in the 12th century remain beside the stream.
At Tierzo, 15 kilometres from Molina, stand the fortified Casa de Vega de Arias (popularly known as the Casa del Cid) and the salt pans of Armallá, of probable Roman origin and documented since the 10th century. Their present layout dates from the reign of Carlos III when salt production was managed as a Crown monopoly.
Far from the sea, salt was harvested from inland brine springs: water evaporated under summer sun in shallow clay pans, and crystallized salt was stored in large royal storehouses (alfolíes). Armallá preserves these warehouse structures and brine extraction systems.
Memory we can follow
12th – 20th centuries
Harvesting inland salt
The salt pans of Armallá are cited in the 12th-century charter of Molina. Alongside Saelices de la Sal, their storage barns and mule-driven waterwheels represent the finest preserved salt heritage in the region.
Read the story →1138 – 1813
A land of independent laws
Salt was an economic foundation of the autonomy of the Señorío de Molina, ruled by the Lara dynasty under independent customs from 1154.
Read the story →Villages to read this basin from
These are gateways to its headwaters, valleys, and memory. The selection gathers regional villages; it does not imply the entire municipality drains into this river.
Traces of the river and its basin
Lands united by water
Sources of this reading
Linked memory stories include their own cited sources. Fluvial connections refer to this specific stream; names like Salado and Tajuelo also recur in other basins.