Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Valdemorillo

What to see and do in Valdemorillo (Cuenca del Guadarrama, Madrid): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 1 Activities · 1 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Valdemorillo

Church of la Asunción de Nuestra Señora de Valdemorillo 100 m

Towns near Valdemorillo

Spain › Community of Madrid › Cuenca del Guadarrama › Valdemorillo

What to see and do in Valdemorillo

Valdemorillo
Village
Valdemorillo is a municipality in the west of the Community of Madrid, 38 kilometres from the capital, situated on the ramp of the Sierra de Guadarrama on mostly granite soil; it is watered by the River Aulencia, the main tributary of the Guadarrama, next to the Nava stream that runs through the town centre. Part of the Valmayor reservoir lies within its territory, second in capacity in the region after El Atazar, integrated into the regional park of the Middle Course of the Guadarrama and into the Ruta Imperial that Philip II followed between Madrid and El Escorial. The municipality, documented since 1302 and with about 14,400 inhabitants, preserves the Herrerian church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción and an 1845 earthenware factory that is now a ceramics museum; its February bullfighting fair opens the season.
Church of la Asunción de Nuestra Señora de Valdemorillo
Monument
Built between the late 15th century and the early 16th in Castilian late Gothic style related to the workshops of Ávila, with Mozarabic and Romanesque remains and a Herrerian-style doorway resulting from the renovation completed in 1601 by the architect Bartolomé Elorriaga, a pupil of Juan de Herrera. Inside, the baptistery chapel stands out, with a monumental 18th-century font that has become an emblem of the parish. During the Civil War it served as the headquarters of the Republican army at the Battle of Brunete, which burned the pews, images and the main altarpiece, while the façade took the impacts of the Nationalist artillery positioned at Navalagamella. The Community of Madrid declared it a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 2025.
Valdemorillo Royal Earthenware Factory
Monument
Founded in 1845 by the firm Aulencia, Falcó y Compañía to produce lime, earthenware, porcelain, stoneware and hollow glass; it keeps its three brick bottle kilns in good condition and now houses the cultural centre and a museum of ceramics and glass.
San Blas bullfighting fair of Valdemorillo
Activity
Held in early February at the La Candelaria bullring, opened in 2003, it starts off the Spanish bullfighting calendar each year; the festivities of 2 and 3 February recall the passage through the town in 1574 of the cortège bearing the remains of Carlos I on its way to El Escorial.
The pottery factory of the Aulencia
Historical milestone
The outcrops of kaolin clay beside the Aulencia river attracted the alcoreño businessman Juan Falcó, who in 1845 set up the Sociedad de Aulencia, Falcó y Cía., a fine earthenware factory conceived as an alternative to English ware. It came to employ some two hundred people in a village of barely one thousand seven hundred inhabitants. It produced tableware printed with hunting scenes and landscapes and, from 1880, a geometric decorative series; the Palacio Real still holds pieces made for Alfonso XIII. From 1893 it expanded its catalogue to pharmacy containers, mortars and electrical components. Falcó closed the factory in 1914, and the complex fell into ruin after 1936, of which only three porcelain kilns and the medieval tower that served as a water tank survived.