The Casas Colgadas are a group of houses hanging from the Huécar River gorge in Cuenca, a UNESCO World Heritage city in Spain. There used to be more of these houses built between the 13th and 15th centuries; however, only three of them still survive today. The uneven ground floor of these narrow and tall buildings were used as wineries. The city also houses a medieval fortress and Spain’s first Gothic cathedral.
Cuenca was a well-protected Moor city with a medieval fortress before the Castilians conquered it in the 12th century. Then, the city became a royal town, and the Castilians built the first Gothic cathedral in Spain. Later, they also built these traditional gravity-defying houses on the edge of the gorge. The old version of the city appears in the artist Anton van den Wyngaerde’s painting called Cuenca from the East, dating from 1565. Over the centuries, the Casas Colgadas (hung houses) have served as individual houses, council houses, a type of restaurant, and the Spanish Abstract Art Museum.
