Logbook · 4 places

What to see and do in Villaconejos

What to see and do in Villaconejos (Las Vegas, Madrid): 4 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 1 Activities · 1 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of Villaconejos

Museum of el Melón 300 m

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Spain › Community of Madrid › Las Vegas › Villaconejos

What to see and do in Villaconejos

Villaconejos
Village
Villaconejos is a municipality in the Comunidad de Madrid, in the Las Vegas comarca, with about 3,570 inhabitants across 36.65 square kilometres, at an altitude of 680 metres. Its name comes from Villa de los Conejos ("town of the rabbits"), a legacy of a comarca once rich in rabbits and in hunters who pursued them with greyhounds, an activity already documented in the 14th century. It may have originated before the 8th century or during the Reconquista, and two Roman roads passed through its lands, the one linking Mérida with Zaragoza and the one running from Almería to Castro Urdiales. The village has long been known for its melons, a fame upheld by the Melon Museum, opened in 1993 and unique in the world, with a festival every 12 October. Its heritage is completed by the church of San Nicolás de Bari and the Cueva del Fraile cave.
Museum of el Melón
Monument
The Museo del Melón in Villaconejos, unique of its kind in the world, displays information, photographs and farming tools that reflect the agricultural history of the town, famous for its piel de sapo melons. Its precursor, the Museo del melonero, had been since 1993 a room of photographs next to the offices of the Cooperativa del Campo; the present museum, also promoted by the Comunidad de Madrid, opened in 2003 with material largely donated by local residents. The building is spread over three floors, with exhibition rooms, a projection room, a library and administration, and brings together more than a thousand photographs along with genuine tools and objects that show what the life of a melon grower was like before the 21st century.
Festival of el Melón
Activity
A celebration that every 12 October joins the Hispanic Day holiday to the town's melon-growing tradition, with bullfighting events, fireworks and the handing out of the piel de sapo melons that made the municipality famous across the comarca.
Villaconejos Melon
Food and drink
A melon of the piel de sapo variety grown in the sandy lands of the Tagus meadow, with a fame documented since the end of the sixteenth century. Of rough dark green rind, it gives a white, crisp and very sweet flesh eaten on its own or with ham.