Discover
Cerro de la Virgen sits on a flat-topped spur between the River Orce and two ravines, about three kilometres west of the village, next to the hermitage of the Virgen de la Cabeza. It is a protected site (Bien de Interés Cultural) known for its long sequence of occupation —from the Copper Age to the Argaric Bronze Age—, its fortifications and the remains of a water channel interpreted as an irrigation ditch.
It was excavated between 1963 and 1970 by the German archaeologist Wilhelm Schüle. Finds include ivory ornaments made from elephant and hippopotamus tusks whose raw material came from very far away, evidence of the long-distance exchange networks of this community.
The cave farmhouse where Schüle lived has been restored as an interpretation centre: it covers his life, Orce in the 1960s and the results of the excavations. It opens at weekends and every day in August; check the opening times before you go. The image shows the landscape between Orce and Galera, not the site itself.