Cueva de los Muñecos ('Dolls' Cave')

Singular places

0, Santa Elena

There is in Santa Elena (Jaén) a place known by all the neighbors as La Cueva de los Muñecos, named for the amount of votive offerings (bronze figurines) found in the area. It is the Iberian Sanctuary located in the Collado de los Jardines located on the A-6200 road that starts from the A4 highway in Despeñaperros to the town of Aldeaquemada.

This Sanctuary from the Ibera period, together with another one also located in Jaén, in the town of Castellar, are very important and have provided the largest number of bronze votive offerings, important pieces not only to know the work of this metal in the Iberian world, but to solve many other problems related to the faithful who approached the divinity in these places of worship, such as the type of religiosity, the forms of clothing, jewelry, weapons, the type of hairstyle, etc.

More than 2,500 votive offerings have come from Collado de los Jardines, and more than 2,000 from Castellar. Almost all of these objects are kept in the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid.

The votive offerings (dolls) of this Sanctuary of Collado de los Jardines are the most varied, in them faithful of all kinds are represented: women, men, warriors, etc.
The latest research was based on the documentation of a historical settlement in the “Cerro del Castillo” located above the Sanctuary, with the consequent registration of materials and the documentation of 'work units' such as a Roman road, a wall and the environment of the site occupied by the Iberian necropolis.

The Cueva de los Muñecos is located inside the Despeñaperros Natural Park, in the municipality of Santa Elena, within a ravine, embedded between colossal stone blocks, in which there are several caves excavated, the largest of which, of about 50 meters deep, it probably formed the limit of the sacred precinct. Inside this cave today there is a water spring that probably must have existed already in ancient times. In the area today there is an Interpretation Center of the Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Despeñaperros Natural Park, as well as a path for public use that leads to the Sanctuary and a viewpoint in the so-called Cerro del Castillo.