Logbook · 8 places

What to see and do in Nuevo Baztán

What to see and do in Nuevo Baztán (Cuenca del Henares, Madrid): 8 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

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

How far each place is from the centre of Nuevo Baztán

Century-old elm of Nuevo Baztán 50 m
Historic Ensemble of Nuevo Baztán 100 m

Towns near Nuevo Baztán

Spain › Community of Madrid › Cuenca del Henares › Nuevo Baztán

What to see and do in Nuevo Baztán

Nuevo Baztán
Village
Nuevo Baztán is a town of about 7,400 inhabitants southeast of Alcalá de Henares, in the Community of Madrid, at 831 metres of altitude. Its historic quarter is a Baroque factory-town built between 1709 and 1713 by Juan de Goyeneche, with designs by José Benito de Churriguera, to house the workers of a glass factory; the name recalls the Navarrese valley of Baztán, Goyeneche's birthplace. Its layout of streets in an orthogonal grid is considered an example of pure Castilian Baroque town planning. The industries closed in the mid-18th century and the settlement was left abandoned, until it was declared a Historic-Artistic Monument in 1941. Since 1965 the Eurovillas development has multiplied the population around the old centre.
Palace-Church of San Francisco Javier
Monument
A Baroque ensemble built between 1709 and 1713 by José Benito de Churriguera for Juan de Goyeneche, linking a palace, a church and three squares along a single frontage; the town centre was declared a historic-artistic ensemble in 1941 and a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 2000. The façade, dedicated to Saint Francis Xavier, co-patron of Navarre, is flanked by two towers 27.5 metres high topped with slate roofs in Herrerian style. Inside, the main altarpiece of red marble stands out, the work of Churriguera himself, with a medallion showing the saint baptising an infidel king. Ivory carvings are also preserved, such as the Cristo del Socorro. The choir connects directly with the palace.
Goyeneche Royal Glass Factory
Curiosity
Goyeneche founded the village in 1709 as an industrial colony around a fine glass factory that supplied Spain and the American colonies; the shortage of firewood and European competition ruined it in the mid-18th century.
Historic Ensemble of Nuevo Baztán
Monument
The historic ensemble of Nuevo Baztán, declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) by decree of 16 March 2000, is the industrial village that Juan de Goyeneche, following French rationalism, commissioned around 1709 from the architect José Benito de Churriguera, who extended the works until 1713; the name recalls the Navarrese valley of Baztán, where Goyeneche came from. Churriguera gave unity to the ensemble by taking as its axis the complex formed by the palace and the church, from which he laid out an orthogonal scheme with settlers' houses, kilns and offices intended for the manufacture of fine glass and cloth. The system of squares connected at an angle links the Plaza de la Iglesia, treated as a garden around the Fountain of the Tritons, the Plaza del Secreto and the Plaza de las Fiestas.
Valmores Trail
Activity
A circular route of some six kilometres dropping from the baroque settlement to the valley of the Vega stream through holm oaks and olive groves to the ruined church of the deserted village of Valmores, whose abandonment legend explains with a curse.
Century-old elm of Nuevo Baztán
Nature
An Ulmus minor some three hundred years old, a survivor both of the row of elms with which Churriguera finished off the approach to the settlement and of the Dutch elm disease that wiped out the species in Spain; it is listed in the Region of Madrid's inventory of notable trees.
Goyeneche founds Nuevo Baztán
Historical milestone
The Navarrese financier Juan de Goyeneche raised from nothing between 1709 and 1713 an industrial and residential complex, with its layout entrusted to José Benito de Churriguera, whose main activity was a glass factory. It went bankrupt in the mid-18th century.
The wines of Nuevo Baztán
Food and drink
The municipality belongs to the Arganda subzone of the Vinos de Madrid Designation of Origin, the largest of the four that make it up. On these limestone soils the traditional white grape is malvar, accompanied by tempranillo in the reds.