Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Las Navas del Marqués

What to see and do in Las Navas del Marqués (Burgohondo - El Tiemblo - Cebreros, Ávila): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 1 Historical milestones · 1 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of Las Navas del Marqués

Castle-palace of Magalia 200 m
Convent of Santo Domingo y San Pablo 250 m

Towns near Las Navas del Marqués

Spain › Castile and León › Ávila › Burgohondo - El Tiemblo - Cebreros › Las Navas del Marqués

What to see and do in Las Navas del Marqués

Las Navas del Marqués
Village
Las Navas del Marqués is a municipality of Ávila province located on the southern slope of the Sierra de Malagón, in the Sistema Central, bordering the Community of Madrid; with around 5670 inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous municipality in the province of Ávila. Its principal heritage sites are the Renaissance castle-palace of Magalia, whose construction was ordered around 1540 by Pedro Dávila, and the convent of Santo Domingo y San Pablo, both declared Bienes de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection); to these are added the church of San Juan Bautista and the Eiffel watchtower-viewpoint. The municipality also preserves the distinctive Baile de Tres, one of its most characteristic traditions.
Castle-palace of Magalia
Monument
The Magalia castle-palace, in Las Navas del Marqués (Ávila), was built for the most part in the first half of the 16th century, around 1540, by order of Pedro Dávila, Marquis of Las Navas, from whom the municipality took its name. It is a mainly Renaissance building that sits partly on bare rock, one of the few rock-built castles still standing. Among its technical rarities are the two flat vaults of the library tower, contemporary with those of El Escorial, which, according to tradition, Philip II himself decided not to copy there for fear they would collapse. The arcaded courtyard has twenty-four Ionic arches and as many Doric columns, decorated with the coats of arms of the Dávila and Córdoba families. It was declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico Nacional (a former Spanish heritage-protection category, precursor to the BIC) on 3 June 1931.
Convent of Santo Domingo y San Pablo
Monument
Founded in 1545, it is a building of ashlar and rubble masonry in granite, with a single nave and a polygonal chancel. It was left abandoned after the Mendizábal disentailment and was declared a monument on 12 February 1982. It was commissioned by the first Marquises of Las Navas, who laid the first stone on St Paul's day in 1546; the Order of Preachers took possession of the church, still under construction, in 1547. Between 1581 and 1610 the friars left because of disagreements with the second marchioness, and the convent was turned into a collegiate church. Joseph Bonaparte ordered its secularization in 1809, and in 1812 it was sacked by French troops; after their withdrawal in 1814, it was left permanently abandoned in 1837, until in 1847 Queen Isabella II handed the church over to the Town Council for parish use.
The resettlement of Las Navas by Alfonso X
Historical milestone
Alfonso X, who reigned between 1252 and 1284, ordered the repopulation of the pine forests of the Sierra de Malagón, at 1,300 meters of altitude, the origin of the settlement that centuries later would take the name of the Marquis Pedro Dávila, builder of the Palacio de Magalia around 1540.
The potes naveros (potato stew)
Food and drink
During the festivities of the Cristo de Gracia, in the second week of July, the potes naveros are handed out, potato stews cooked in a cauldron for the local people. They are the dish that identifies the great festival of the municipality.