CUENCA, a province of New Castile, Spain, lying between 39’ 20' and 40° 40' N. lat., and 1° 10' and 3° 10' W. long., with the provinces of Guadalajara and Teruel on the N., Valencia on the E., Albacete and Ciudad Real on the S., Toledo on the W., and Madrid on the N.W. Area, 6726 square miles. It occupies the eastern part of the ancient kingdom of New Castile, and slopes from the Sierra de Cuenca (highest point, the Cerro de San Felipe, on the N.E. border of the province, 5905 feet) down into the great southern .Castilian plain watered by the upper streams of the Guadiana. The rocky and bare highland of Cuenca on the north and east includes the upper valley of the Jucar or Xucar and its tributary streams, but in the north-west the province is watered by tributaries of the Tagus. The forests are proverbial for their pine timber, and rival those of Soria; considerable quantities of timber are floated down the Tagus to Aranjuez, and thence taken to Madrid for building purposes. Excessive droughts prevail; the climate of the hills and of the high plateaus is rude and cold, but the valleys are excessively hot in summer. The soil where well watered is fertile, but little attention is paid to agriculture, and three-fourths of the area is left under pasture. The rearing of cattle, asses, mules, and sheep is the principal employment of the people; olive oil, nuts, wine, wheat, silk, wax, and honey are the chief products of the province. Mining of iron, copper, alum, and saltpetre is carried on to a small extent; jasper and agates are found. Manufactures are limited to the coarsest stuffs. Population in 1870, 238,731....
Cuencá, the capital of the above province, and the seat of a bishop, is finely placed on a rocky eminence girt about with hills, beside the river Jucar at its confluence with the stream of the Huecar, at an elevation of 2960 feet above the sea, and distant about eighty-five miles E.S.E. from Madrid. It was once a flourishing town, celebrated in arts and literature, and the focus of the provincial wool-trade, but has now a population of barely 7400. Its cathedral was founded by Alphonso VIII. in 1177, and is one of the most remarkable in Spain. A fine bridge (erected in 1523) passes over the Jucar to the convent of San Pablo. A few paper mills, and some woolwashing and silver-working, are the remnant of its former industries.
CUENCA, an inland town of the Andes of Ecuador, S. America, about 190 miles S. of Quito and 60 miles S.E. of the port of Guayaquil. It stands on a plain at an elevation of about 8640 feet above the sea, near the hill of Farqui, chosen by the French astronomers as their meridian in 1742. It is a cathedral city, and contains several monasteries, besides a college and other educational institutions. Cuenca has an extensive trade in cheese, oats, grain, and other agricultural produce. The population, which is estimated at 25,000, is in great part Indian. In the redivision of the republic into 11 provinces, which took place in 1875, the former province of Cuenca ceased to bear that name.
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