According to legend, having to happen one day the Gothic king Recaredo, for the street of the Cava that to the season was in those days a covered rill of undergrowth, the neighbors gave fire to the brambles and between the flames, some cross of wood appeared without damage, after this fact, the village started be call Santa Cruz entre Zarzas, evolving later to the name that today has.

Its location in the northeastern part of the high plateau known as the Mesa de Ocaña offers from the top, with levels higher than 800 m, one of the best perspectives on the valley Tagus.

In Santa Cruz de la Zarza there is a very important natural asset, presenting unique habitats that have been identified as priorities by the European directives.

These are the areas declared as Sites of Community Importance (SCIs), as the steppes of Toledo saline or reservoir plaster in the Tagus valley.

Since antiquity it has been an important center for communications and a defensive post of the Romans as well as the Visigoths and Arabs, given its dominant position over the Tagus Valley.

In 1242 it grew in importance under the leadership of Rodrigo Iñiguez, head of the encomienda of his name and in 1253, the Master of the Order of Santiago, Don Pelayo Pérez Correa granted the village a charter.