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What to see and do in Arganda del Rey

What to see and do in Arganda del Rey (Las Vegas, Madrid): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

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

Towns near Arganda del Rey

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What to see and do in Arganda del Rey

Arganda del Rey
Village
Arganda del Rey is a city in the Community of Madrid, in the comarca of Las Vegas, with about 60,000 inhabitants. Its name is the subject of several hypotheses: some derive it from the Latin area canda, 'white area'; others from the pre-Roman city of Alternia cited by Ptolemy; others from the Arabic Arkhanda; and some authors, such as Ramón Menéndez Pidal, link it to the Celtiberian word Uriaganda, 'land of the waters', while another theory points to Argant, 'silver', on account of a supposed nearby deposit. Arganda gives its name to one of the subzones of Madrid wine, with the airén and tempranillo varieties, and its iron bridge over the Jarama, built in 1843, was in February 1937 the scene of the fiercest fighting of the Battle of the Jarama.
King's House of Arganda
Monument
A palace built between 1594 and 1597 by the imperial ambassador Hans Khevenhüller as a royal residence for Felipe III, to designs by the Italian Patricio Cajés; it later passed to the Jesuits and has been municipal property since 1983.
Bridge of Arganda y el frente del Jarama
Monument
The bridge over the Jarama, built in 1821 and rebuilt in iron in 1843, was a central objective of the Battle of Jarama between 6 and 9 February 1937: holding it stopped the rebel troops from cutting the Valencia road.
Arganda becomes a royal town
Historical milestone
The council bought from Philip II in 1581 its status as a town of royal jurisdiction for ten thousand ducats, freeing itself from the jurisdiction of the archbishopric of Toledo. From that purchase comes the epithet "del Rey" that accompanies the place name.
The Arganda wine subzone
Food and drink
Arganda gives its name to the largest of the subzones of the Vinos de Madrid Denomination of Origin, created in 1990 and registered in the European Union in 1996. It groups some thirty municipalities of the south-east and has in malvar its characteristic white grape.