San Lorenzo de El Escorial. Cercedilla. Valdemorillo
This is one of the most interesting tourist routes
in this Community. As you leave Madrid on A-6 and come to Las
Rozas, you take the old highway of Castile M-505, the first exit
there is for San Lorenzo de El Escorial. We are heading toward
the central zone of the mountains of Madrid, coming immediately
to Galapagar, an important summer and weekend spot for many residents
of the Capital. San Lorenzo de El Escorial is one of the points
of major tourism influx for the Community of Madrid due to its
richness in monuments as well as its tradition as a summer place.
The Monastery of El Escorial is world-renowned.
It was built during the reign of Felipe II, to commemorate the
victory over the French in the battle of San Quentin. It took
twenty-one years to build. Juan Bautista de Toledo started it
but Juan de Herrera crowned it, who for many is the only one who
truly marked the style that characterises the Monastery, creating
a school. The Pantheon of the Kings brings together the sepulchres
of all the Spanish monarchs from Carlos I to Alfonso XIII.
The Library of Felipe II with its admirably vaulted ceiling painted
by Tibaldi, the Architecture Halls, the Portraits Hall and the
Painting and Sculptures Hall are also outstanding features. Many
tourists, once they have discovered this corner of history, continue
on to the Valley of the Fallen. You take M-600 and the corresponding
exit. It is a funeral monument built at the end of the Spanish
civil war. It took almost twenty years to build. We continue along
Highway M-600 to visit Guadarrama and Los Molinos, two pretty
summer villages, before going to Cercedilla, a village where we
can see Roman ruins and the Nature Park of Las Barcas.
Taking the scenic highways again, we are taken through some of
the mountain villages, such as Santa María de la Alameda
and El Pimpollar. Finally, we come to Robledo de Chavela, a summer
centre that not too many years ago was absolutely transformed
and modernised in order to offer all sorts of comforts to the
summer visitor.
The only trace left from the past is a XV century church with
a magnificent altarpiece. We cross Navagalamelia, a quiet and
reminiscent village, and come to Valdemorillo, which many years
ago was the place where the plaza was converted into an arena
with wagons and sand for the celebration of amateur bullfights.
Now it boasts of the privilege of opening up the Spanish bullfighting
season with a fair organised every year at the beginning of February.
They say that the church of Valdemorillo is the work of Juan de
Herrera. In order to finish the route to Madrid, we will take
M-509, returning through Villanueva del Pardillo and El Plantío.