Rillo de Gallo

The heraldic shield of Rillo de Gallo was approved by Decree 138/87 of the Community of Castilla-La Mancha on the 27th of October. The shield is split into three parts. The golden rooster is the first of the three main symbols on an azure background, on the top left. A sinople elm tree is on the top right with a greyish background. A sliver axe is the third of the three symbols, shown at the bottom with an azure background.

The town of Rillo de Gallo is located at an altitude of 1,055 meters above sea level with the maximum altitude located at Loma de Matillas (1,404 meters).

The municipality of Rillo de Gallo borders on the north with Pardos and Torrubia, on the south with Corduente, on the east with Rueda de la Sierra and Molina de Aragón, and to the west with Herrería.

The Gallo river, which gives the town its name, is far from the urban area, although it irrigates its lands. The fluvial courses that pass through the urban helmet are the Viejo river, the Herrería river, and the Arroyo Seco River.

In the region of Rillo de Gallo, there are important geological and geomorphological riches that have led to its proposal as a Geosite of international interest.

Petrified tree trunk that surfaced at the time of the reforestation of the pine forest

Numerous geologic formations containing Permian and Triassic fossils from Western Europe are important for their well-preserved Middle Triassic macroflora, pollen, marine vertebrate ichnites, and fauna content. In addition, it was also established the only continuous stratigraphic column in the Iberian Peninsula for the Permian and Triassic. There are detrital[2] formations from the Lower Triassic and the Middle Triassic resulting from a large fluvial system of low sinuosity and the transport of sediments, gravels, or sands from this period.[3]

The road from Rillo de Gallo to Pardos, along the ravine of the Hoz del Río Gallo (Corduente), is suggested as a “Global Geosite” (Spanish Place of Geological Interest of International Importance) by the Instituto Geológico y Minero de Españafor its stratigraphic interest, with the denomination "MZ003: The Permian and Triassic of the Señorío de Molina" within the group of geological contexts «El rifting of Pangea and the Mesozoic successions of the Bética and Iberian mountain ranges'.[4]

Ancient historians say the capital Molina was founded by the Romans, and built next to the village of Rillo de Gallo, receiving the name of Manlia where it appeared in old Latin chronicles. In reality, the city of Manlia was at the head of a large Celtiberian territory for centuries before the confederation of Numantia. Also, the famous city of Ercávica has been placed in the territory of Molina, and identify it with its capital. Even the Celtiberian and then Romanized Lacóbriga have said that it was where today Labros, for the reasons given by the Golden Age chroniclers are, evidently, weak and unfounded.

Molina la Vieja is one of the uninhabited areas of the municipality of Rillo de Gallo,[5] of which there are still remains distributed throughout the area that bears its name. Vestiges of walls and rocks can be seen around this corner of the town. It is located one kilometer northeast of the town center and about 5 km northwest of present-day Molina de Aragón. The passage of the Cid (1048- 1099) through Molina always had to be through Molina la Vieja, populated by the Moors of Abengalbón, because the foundation of the current Molina was carried out by the Christian kings later (Fuero de Molina is published in 1154). Francisco Núñez (1609) says that the foundations of many buildings and the ruins of his Castle can be seen there, which was well-rendered and founded on a cut rock. They say that the Moors who owned it left many treasures there when they were forced to abandon it. It is also said, among the Moors, that there are books indicating how and where to find these treasures. The repeated mention of Molina in the Cantar de mío Cid –up to ten times– is significant enough not to consider it just a poetic resource devised by the author of the Poema.

Rillo de Gallo was the first place in Spain where a dinosaur footprint was found. The discovery took place in the year 1896 when a local resident found "the stone foot of a bug, which the scholars of the time described as" a petrified leg of a corpulent animal "and that they identified with that of a Chirotherium .[6] The specimen can be found in the Vertebrate and Prehistory Paleontology Collection of the National Museum of Natural Sciences. A sample of the evidence of the existence of reptiles in the fossil record is the traces of the Triassic, found in the Museo Geominero in Madrid.

First dinosaur footprint found in Spain, in Rillo de Gallo 1896. Vertebrate and Prehistoric Paleontology Collection, MNCN

• The parochial church is a small building with espadaña to the west and a simple semicircular door to the south, that remembers its medieval origins.
• The house of the marquises of Embid, of severe traditional lines, with a magnificent baroque shield over the door; and in the center of the square the fountain is dedicated as a monument to Calixto Rodríguez.
• The Capricho Rillano built by Juan Antonio Martínez on the edge of the road N-211 km 54, it is a modernist building that follows a model gaudiano. The house, built in stone, includes elements in forge and trencadís reminiscent of the work of the Catalan master. Perhaps its most prominent element is the serpent that falls from the roof over the entire height of the building, in reference to the legend collected in the 17th century by the Licentiate Francisco Núñez, and that includes the existence of a gigantic snake in the nearby dehesa of Villacabras, as tall as a man, who would have been sighted several times.
• El Abrigo del Llano (Rillo I and Rillo II) are two remains of cave paintings declared World Heritage by UNESCO in 1998 within the rock art of the Mediterranean arch of the Iberian peninsula (the only two in the province of Guadalajara) and Property of Cultural Interest since 17 February 1997.

Historically the festivals were not celebrated in the month of August. The Party, because they were not parties, were celebrated on September 8 (Nativity of the Virgin Mary), on the 9th the Fiestecilla and on the 10th the Abuela.

The municipality is known for its delicacies such as sausages, among which blood sausages and chorizo stand out.

• Rillo de Gallo(in English)
• Rillo de Gallo(in Spanish)