Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in El Espinar

What to see and do in El Espinar (Comunidad de Ciudad y Tierra de Segovia, Segovia): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 2 Nature · 1 Activities

How far each place is from the centre of El Espinar

Church of San Eutropio 50 m
Sierra de Guadarrama National Park 23 km

Towns near El Espinar

Spain › Castile and León › Segovia › Comunidad de Ciudad y Tierra de Segovia › El Espinar

What to see and do in El Espinar

El Espinar
Village
El Espinar is a municipality in the Segovia area situated at the foot of the sierra de Guadarrama, on the border with the provinces of Ávila and Madrid, which brings together the settlements of El Espinar, San Rafael, Gudillos, Prados and Los Ángeles de San Rafael; it has a population of around 10,400 inhabitants. Its name, documented since the 12th century, derives from the Latin spina and refers to a spot covered in thorn bushes. Its altitude, between 1,050 and 2,169 metres, gives it a climate that is cool in summer and cold in winter, which has attracted numerous second homes, especially in San Rafael, situated at the foot of the Alto del León pass. Once enriched by the wool trade, it preserves the church of San Eutropio, rebuilt by Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón, with an altarpiece by Francisco Giralte.
Church of San Eutropio
Monument
A temple originally Romanesque, from the 13th or 14th century, largely destroyed by a fire in 1452; its transept and apse were rebuilt in the 16th century, from 1565 onward, in late Gothic style under the design of Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón, and from 1572 Juan de Minjares remodelled the nave, raising it above the Romanesque buttresses and adding a gallery above them. The works were completed in the 17th and 18th centuries, by then in Baroque style, with the sacristy, the south doorway and the lesser altarpieces. The main altarpiece, of classical lines and Plateresque ornamentation, is the work of Francisco Giralte, with paintings by Alonso Sánchez Coello; also preserved is the sarga, a canvas 15 by 5 metres that covers the altarpiece during Holy Week with scenes of the Passion. It was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) on 5 May 1994.
Sierra de Guadarrama National Park
Nature
The Sierra de Guadarrama National Park, declared by Law 7/2013 of 25 June, protects some 30,000 hectares of the Sistema Central -the massif that splits the Castilian plateau in two and separates the Duero and Tajo basins- shared between the provinces of Madrid and Castilla y León; the municipality of El Espinar contributes its Segovian slope of pine forests and broom scrub. It is the fourth-largest Spanish national park by area and, with almost three million visitors in 2015, the second most visited after Teide. It protects eleven high-mountain Mediterranean ecosystems unique in the peninsula, with more than 1,280 species and more than 1,500 native plants; among its fauna, which accounts for 45% of that of Spain, there are Iberian wolves, wild mountain goats and large birds of prey such as the Spanish imperial eagle.
San Ildefonso-El Espinar Biosphere Reserve
Nature
Unesco declared on 28 May 2013 the biosphere reserve of Real Sitio de San Ildefonso-El Espinar, 35,418 hectares on the northern slope of the Guadarrama shared between two municipalities that add up to some 15,500 inhabitants.
El Espinar-Peguerinos pine forest
Activity
Between Ávila and Segovia extends the pinewood of El Espinar-Peguerinos, a great mass of Scots pine dotted with broom and heath scrub that the municipality has waymarked with a network of walks and excursions through the natural park declared in January 2010.