Located on the hill opposite Uclés is the Sepulchre, a place of worship since 1751, hewn from living rock in a picturesque setting surrounded by olive trees and with views of the town and monastery. It was built by Tomás de Torres y Moya, a sworn knight of the Order of Santiago.
Today the site is used for the religious rites during Holy Week: morning mass on Holy Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and the Holy Burial procession on Good Friday, a fascinating cultural as well as religious event.
It has a simple door with two little windows providing a view of the interior, and an iron cross rising from the roof. The hill is crowned by another cross that once stood in the “placeta” or Plaza del Conde Cedillo but was brought here at the end of the civil war after it was replaced in the square by the monument to the fallen.
A Via Crucis begins at the foot of the hill and ends at the top, near the Sepulchre. The Stations are marked by stone plaques with inscriptions made by Columbano Rico, a local amateur stonemason who also carved several inscriptions inside the Sepulchre.
The Moorish cemetery is thought to have been located on the other side of this hill, and situated at the highest point is the “clay pit” from which a whitish sandy variety of clay was extracted, commonly used for removing grease and stains.