"Most Spanish towns faced with Cuenca's need to expand in the 18th century would
have spread out along the surrounding countryside. But Cuenca, perched on the
top of a hill, turned not to the earth but to the sky. Its improbable solution
stands all along that part of the town that clings to the side of the hill and
that faces the River Huécar: its hanging houses. The flat-fronted dwellings in
the Barrio de San Martín, so starkly simple a child could draw them, rise seven
or eight teetering stories above a ravine and the River Heucar to the east. It
is as if the town were trying to outgrow itself, reaching ever higher in an
effort to compensate for the ravine below." -- Isabel Soto, "Hanging Houses
of Cuenca," The New York Times
Here's a picture of the bridge where Jim proposed to Megan.
En Español