Logbook · 6 places

What to see and do in Loeches

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

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

How far each place is from the centre of Loeches

Monastery of la Inmaculada Concepción 150 m
Convent of San Ignacio Mártir 200 m

Towns near Loeches

Spain › Community of Madrid › Cuenca del Henares › Loeches

What to see and do in Loeches

Loeches
Village
Loeches is a municipality of the Community of Madrid, with about 9,300 inhabitants, between Alcalá de Henares and Arganda del Rey; records of it exist from the 12th century, when it formed part of the Sexmo de Tajuña, and in 1214 it passed to the Archbishopric of Toledo as one of the twenty-five towns of the Alfoz Complutense. It received the status of villazgo from Charles I in 1555, and its church of the Assumption preserves a tombstone with a calvary from 1295 and three doorways in Plateresque, Renaissance and Baroque styles. In 1596 the Cárdenas family founded the convent of San Ignacio Mártir, of Discalced Carmelites, where the Infanta María Teresa was educated; upon their deaths, the Count-Duke of Olivares bought the lordship in 1633. Its monastery of the Immaculate Conception, built in 1640 by Olivares, holds the tomb of the valido, exiled to Loeches in 1643.
Monastery of la Inmaculada Concepción
Monument
The monastery of the Immaculate Conception stands in Loeches, facing the plaza de la Duquesa de Alba, also known as “the great convent.” It was founded in 1633 by Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel, count-duke of Olivares and favourite of Philip IV, after he acquired the lordship of Loeches; a devotee of the Immaculate Conception and believing himself descended from Saint Dominic de Guzmán, he placed it in the hands of the Recollect Dominican nuns after the town's Carmelite community rejected its patronage. The design is by Alonso Carbonel, royal architect and also the author of the Buen Retiro, who enlarged the palace where Olivares lived after his dismissal in 1643, until his death in Toro in 1645; he is buried in the church. Of the palace only the 17th-century granite doorway survives, the entrance to the stables. The Dominican nuns lived there until 2012.
Waters of La Margarita of Loeches
Curiosity
In 1851 a sodium sulphate spring appeared on the Calvario hill, giving rise to the La Margarita spa; bottled and sold as a purgative all over Spain, the water of Loeches sustained the village's fame until the 1920s.
Convent of San Ignacio Mártir
Monument
The convent of San Ignacio Mártir and la Madre de Dios, also called "el convento chico", stands opposite Plaza Duquesa de Alba in Loeches, of which it is the oldest religious building. It was founded in 1596 by Íñigo de Cárdenas y Zapata, lord of the town, together with his mother Isabel de Avellaneda and his sister Francisca de Cárdenas y Avellaneda, who took the Carmelite habit under the name Francisca de Cristo and became the convent's first prioress. It remains inhabited by Discalced Carmelites and holds the remains of the founder and of Francisca de Cristo. In 1633 the Count-Duke of Olivares acquired the lordship of Loeches and paid for the village's first water supply, giving several fountains to the convent's nuns.
The exile of the Count-Duke of Olivares
Historical milestone
Removed from power by Felipe IV, Gaspar de Guzmán withdrew to the lordship he had bought in 1633 and where he had raised a convent of Dominican nuns. He died in 1645 and his remains have rested in that monastery ever since.
The olive oil of Loeches
Food and drink
The district forms part of the protected designation of origin Aceite de Madrid, which covers extra virgin oil made with at least two of the main varieties: cornicabra, castellana and manzanilla cacereña, from unirrigated olive groves.