Requena Villages: Villar de Olmos and La Cañada

The village of Villar de Olmos is located at the north of Requena, about 16 km away.
The access is comfortable and very pleasant since the road passes through places of great beauty. Its climate, with the usual temperatures of the interior regions, makes us enjoy snowy winters and very fair summers. The village is divided in two urban nuclei, being the first one Villar de Olmos itself, and following the road, one kilometer away, La Cañada, which is at the top of the mountain.
Following the road a bit further, we would arrive to the Hermitage of El Remedio, belonging to the municipality of Utiel.
The next village is Las Nogueras, which we can reach through a wonderful forest track, like all the surroundings. It is roughly three kilometers away.
DESCRIPTIVE FRAGMENT OF THE 19TH HISTORIAN HERRERO Y MORAL:
The area of that name is made up of one wide jurisdictional extension; it would be enough to say to understand it, that by the rising sun headress with the municipality of Siete Aguas, by the west with the one of Villar de Tejas, by the south with El Rebollar and by the north with the municipality of Chera. Within that great perimeter, extremely mountainous and fractioned, one can find many houses, forming its greater part three villages, known with the names of Las Nogueras, La Cañada and Villar de Olmos, which is the capital, for having a greater number of houses and neighbors.

HISTORY

THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF VILLAR DE OLMOS AND LA CAÑADA
In their neighboring term of Chelva rest of dinosaurs 135 million years old, deposited in the Paleontological Museum of Valencia, have been documented. These testimonies are associated with the route of the dinosaurs that from Alpuente crossed our region into in the one of Hoya de Buñol, and that without a doubt would happen through the term of Villar de Olmos.
FIRST HUMAN TESTIMONIES
The oldest deposit in Villar de Olmos that has been studied is the one of Cueva Sarnosa, where the found materials (axes, ends of arrows, lances...) can be located in the transit between the hunting-recolector man of the Paleolithic Age to the first agriculturists of the Neolithic one, according to the archaeologists Aparicio Pérez and Latorre Nuévalos, between 9,500 and 7,500 years before our Age.
Important rests of ceramics and cabins belonging to the Neolithic periods of Bronze Age and Iron Age have been found near the mentioned cave, as well as in the Juan Navarro peak.
IBERIAN PERIOD
Vestiges of a village known as Alto de la Caparrota, dated in the Iberian Age, between years 475 and 210 before our Age, were found.
Also, within the area is the Cave of Collado del Hielo, aged in the same period, like other caves dispersed by the region, which might serve as centers of rituals or sanctuaries where Iberians went in peregrination to deposit the offerings to their gods.
THE ROMANIZATION
In La Cañada de Villar de Olmos vestiges of Roman vestiges have been found, as well as numerous tombs that formed one necropolis, great fragments of dolias (some kind of amphoras), about three hundred rhomboid bricks pertaining to an opus spicatum, ceramic rests, iron knives, a copper lamina, a magnificent pottery with its corresponding furnace, etc., as well as walled enclosures of about 50 cm of thickness.
MEDIEVAL PERIOD
From the Muslim domination, rests of rubblework structures have been located in the hill of Mariluna, place-name derived from Madyûna. The place of Benaca would have its origin in a Muslim farmhouse founded by the sons of Ajqan (Benaca derived from Ben, sons, of Ajqan). During the 15th century still this area was inhabited, according to documentary testimonies.
MODERN PERIOD
In 1843 the gentleman Don Francisco Zamora yielded to the village the oratory of San Isidro which he had in one of his houses. In 1883 the priest Cruz Lorente and his brothers yielded to the village the necessary adjacent land so that the hermitage was higher and stronger. That was made by the neighbors with result of a three times greater temple.
The present name of the village surely comes from one old work house called "of the Elm tree". It has a centennial hermitage, built by Don Francisco Zamora in 1829.
About ninety years ago this village got to have registered more than one hundred families. From the sixties it went depopulating until today, when there are only a few registered neighbors, who do not inhabit it of continuous form, although all the houses have been rehabilitated and many have been built new ones as second residence.

ENVIRONMENT

The surroundings form one of the few mount redoubts with native vegetation, that has not been affected by fires.
Between the great variety of flora the cluster pines, white pines, holm oaks, strawberry trees, sabinas, and a long list.
For the lovers of the mount harvesting, Villar de Olmos is a privileged place, by the great amount and variety of mushrooms and eatable fungi that grow up, in addition to asparagus, collejas...

About its fauna, it is also extraordinarily varied, being able to see badegers, foxes, wild boars, partridges, and the hares and the rabbits which are the delight of the hunters of the zone.
A stroll by its surroundings can be an unforgettable experience, since it is not difficult to see so many-colored inhabitants.
The sources that flow in their environs are very numerous, the pools naturally formed allow to enjoy a cheering bath the warmest days of the summer, or to enjoy the snowfalls in winter, not reducing the beauty of the place nor the snow nor the autumn, when the vines get dressed in red and ocher in a worthy range of the trowel of a painter. It is the preferred station, along with the spring with his majestic explosion of color, for the artists who year after year meet in Villar de Olmos to shape their enchantment in the linen cloths that they will hang in the exhibition halls everywhere.
In summary, this village reunites the requirements necessary to spend calm days of vacations, indifferently of the time of the year in which we are. Its surroundings make it the one of the villages more visited by nature lovers who they can practice the trekking by its surroundings, recovered footpaths and gorges, make routes by bicycle, horse strolls...

PUBLIC FESTIVITIES

The festivities of the Patron Saint, in honor to San Isidro Labrador on May 15th. They start in the weekend that is nearer to that date with the presentation of the Queen of the Festivities, and continue with a great dance, only interrupted to taste chocolate with muffins.
On the following day, the village is adorned, and in the evening the games and competitions for children start. At night a popular supper for all the neighbors and visitors is prepared, and the day ends with a dance and chocolate with muffins.
The last day, Sunday, starts with a "despertà" by all the streets of the village. Next a procession with the image of San Isidro is celebrated, accompanied by a music band, the Queen of the Festivities and the authorities. After the procession, as Mass is celebrated in the centennial hermitage. In the evening, a new session of dance and the delivery of the prizes of the competitions.
The Festivities end with a Closing Speech from the President of the Celebrations Commission.

GASTRONOMY

Like in the rest of the villages of the area, the gastronomy in Villar de Olmos is very traditional and has an ancient Castilian scent, not leaving apart the Valencian traditions, as one can find in its chicken and rabbit paella, with the special touch of sausage.
Traditional dishes are morteruelo, gazpachos (with wild rabbit and partridge), ham and blood sausage gazpachos, and potatoes and mushrooms bouillon...

There are special winter dishes, like cachuli with sausage, to be eaten at the fireside in company of good friends.
Noodles nougat, fritters, honey-water... are typical desserts, as well as dried fruits and yam empanadillas. These desserts are the final brooch of an excelent meal, accompanied by the good wine from de region and mistela.

PLACES AND ENVIRONS

Due to its magnificent situation, the environs of the village are rich in springs and fountains: La Canaleja, La Fuente del Sas, El Donero, Los Chorrillos, La Juangorda, Las Balsas... being their waters the best of the region with difference. All of them join in a single river which is full of autochtonous fauna: crayfishes, barbels, carps, turtles... who may live thanks to the purity of the water.
Along the mounts we can find trekking paths of a great beauty, which are also visited by horse strollers and cyclo-turists.
The surroundings of La Canaleja spring are rich in fossil deposits.