Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Valdetorres de Jarama

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

1 Villages · 1 Nature · 1 Activities · 1 Curiosities · 1 Historical milestones

Towns near Valdetorres de Jarama

Spain › Community of Madrid › Cuenca del Medio Jarama › Valdetorres de Jarama

What to see and do in Valdetorres de Jarama

Valdetorres de Jarama
Village
Valdetorres de Jarama is a town in Madrid of about 5,200 inhabitants located in the vega of the río Jarama, whose cereal steppes, an area of Community interest, are home to great bustards, kestrels and harriers. Its name may derive from the Muslim watchtowers erected between the 9th and 10th centuries to monitor the advance of the Christian kingdoms toward Toledo, such as that of El Vellón, visible from the village. In 1977, the so-called octagonal-plan Roman villa was excavated here, from the 4th and 5th centuries, although the latest studies identify it rather as a mansio or wayside inn where travellers on the Roman roads found lodging, located next to a road linking Complutum with Somosierra. Its church of the Nativity dates from the 16th century.
Roman villa of Valdetorres de Jarama
Nature
Late Imperial building with an octagonal plan discovered in 1977 and excavated between 1978 and 1982, interpreted as a mansio on a secondary road from Complutum. It yielded sculptures, ceramics and fragments of Egyptian ivory dated to around AD 337-361.
Festival of el Cristo de los Ultrajes
Activity
Every 3 May the Cristo de los Ultrajes goes out in procession, the image that according to tradition was found by fishermen in the Jarama in 1639, and before it the children born during the year are presented amid the singing of the stewards.
Hornazos and puches of Valdetorres
Curiosity
Two dishes that hold up the local festive calendar: the hornazo, a bun with a boiled egg set into it and typical of Easter, and the puches, sweet flour porridge eaten on the special days of the farming winter.
The discovery of the octagonal villa
Historical milestone
The works of a gravel pit beside the river uncovered in 1977 a late Roman building of octagonal plan, unique among Hispanic villas, raised between the late 4th and early 5th centuries. It even preserved a glass kiln in its courtyard.