Logbook · 6 places

What to see and do in Navacerrada

What to see and do in Navacerrada (Cuenca del Guadarrama, Madrid): 6 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 3 Nature · 1 Activities

How far each place is from the centre of Navacerrada

Towns near Navacerrada

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What to see in Cercedilla 4.1 km · 13 places
What to see in Los Molinos 5.4 km · 5 places
What to see in Moralzarzal 7.2 km · 2 places
What to see in El Boalo 8.1 km · 2 places
What to see in Alpedrete 8.1 km · 5 places
What to see in Guadarrama 8.9 km · 7 places

Spain › Community of Madrid › Cuenca del Guadarrama › Navacerrada

What to see and do in Navacerrada

Navacerrada
Village
Navacerrada is a town in the Community of Madrid situated at 1,200 metres of altitude, on the southern slope of the Sierra de Guadarrama, next to the reservoir that bears its name and on the way to the mountain pass of the same name. The place name comes from «nava», flat and waterlogged land between mountains, and «cerrada», alluding to an enclosure for livestock. It has about 3,300 inhabitants and forms part of the Madrid stretch of the Camino de Santiago. On its territory stood the Collado Albo railway station, in service between 1923 and 1994. Every Sunday an antiques market is held on Avenida de los Españoles, and on the first Sunday of each month a vintage car show and a medieval market are added.
Reservoir of Navacerrada
Nature
The Embalse de Navacerrada reservoir was built in 1969 on the río Samburiel, also called the río San Muriel or río Navacerrada, one of the main tributaries of the Manzanares, at around 1,200 metres above sea level in the north-west of the Community of Madrid. It was created to supply water to the municipalities on the Madrid side of the sierra de Guadarrama, and was one of the main reservoirs of CASRAMA, a consortium absorbed in the late 1980s into the Canal de Isabel II, which now manages it. With a curved gravity dam 517 metres long at the crest and 47 metres high, it holds eleven cubic hectometres over about 93 hectares surrounded by pine forest and mountain meadows. Swimming and water sports are not allowed, but rainbow trout fishing is, and paths with wooden boardwalks run along its shores.
Navacerrada mountain pass
Nature
The Puerto de Navacerrada is a pass at 1,858 metres in the sierra de Guadarrama that separates the provinces of Madrid and Segovia; its northern slope belongs to the Segovian municipality of Real Sitio de San Ildefonso and its southern slope to Cercedilla, in Madrid. It is the natural passage between the peaks of Siete Picos and the Bola del Mundo, and through it runs the boundary between the Siete Picos and Peñalara massifs. The current route, designed in 1778 by the royal architect Juan de Villanueva to replace the old road over the Puerto de la Fuenfría, was not opened to traffic until ten years later, under Charles IV, and was a regular route for kings and ministers on their way to La Granja de San Ildefonso. It held a ski resort in operation from the late 1940s until its final closure on 25 March 2025.
Guarramillas chairlift
Activity
In 1954 Transportes Aéreos del Guadarrama was created, and the following year it installed the range's first chairlift at the pass; skiing had been practised there since the early 20th century, when the Club Alpino Español was founded.
Church of la Natividad de Nuestra Señora de Navacerrada
Monument
A 16th-century church with walls of rubble ashlar and dressed stone at the corners, raised on a rise north of the old town; it preserves the original granite font, decorated with balls, and was restored in the 18th century and again in 1954.
Valley of la Barranca
Nature
A mountain valley at the foot of the Bola del Mundo, 2,265 metres, and La Maliciosa, 2,227 metres, in the Sierra de Guadarrama, within the municipalities of Navacerrada and Becerril de la Sierra. It is crossed by the río Samburiel, a tributary of the Manzanares, held back in two small dams before flowing into the Navacerrada reservoir, and by an extensive Scots pine forest whose most characteristic botanical feature is bearberry, scarce elsewhere in the sierra. Next to the first dam stand the ruins of the old Santo Ángel tuberculosis hospital. The climb up La Maliciosa, with an elevation gain of almost a thousand metres, is one of the best-known mountain routes, and its north faces offer climbing routes for experienced climbers.