Logbook · 7 places

What to see and do in Buitrago del Lozoya

What to see and do in Buitrago del Lozoya (Sierra Norte, Madrid): 7 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 4 Monuments · 1 Nature · 1 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Buitrago del Lozoya

Church of Santa María del Castillo de Buitrago 450 m
Reservoir of Riosequillo 2.4 km

Towns near Buitrago del Lozoya

Spain › Community of Madrid › Sierra Norte › Buitrago del Lozoya

What to see and do in Buitrago del Lozoya

Buitrago del Lozoya
Village
Buitrago del Lozoya is a town of around 2,000 inhabitants in the Madrid district of the Sierra Norte, girdled by a meander of the river Lozoya, from which it takes its name, in the valley of the same name that separates the Montes Carpetanos from the Cuerda Larga. Its historic centre, declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), preserves more than 800 metres of wall of Muslim origin and a 15th-century Gothic-Mudéjar castle. It also houses a museum with the sixty works that Picasso gave to his barber, the Buitrago-born Eugenio Arias. The surrounding landscape, with pine forests, granite and gneiss, and the impounded waters of the Lozoya, ranks among the most characteristic of the sierra de Guadarrama.
Walled precinct of Buitrago del Lozoya
Monument
Wall of more than 800 metres in perimeter begun in the 11th century and rebuilt over four centuries, with a lower wall-walk of some 6 metres beside the river, an upper wall-walk of up to 16, a barbican, a moat and a coracha; it has been a Monumento Nacional (Spain's heritage designation in force until 1931) since 1931.
Castle of los Mendoza de Buitrago
Monument
15th-century alcázar in Gothic-Mudéjar style, built with brick, lime and masonry, with a rectangular plan, central courtyard and seven towers, among them the pentagonal one that defends the entrance; it is integrated into the town's wall.
Church of Santa María del Castillo de Buitrago
Monument
The church of Santa María del Castillo, within the walled precinct of Buitrago del Lozoya, is the only one of the four parishes the town had in the 16th century that survives. It began to be built in the early 14th century, probably over an old mosque, and was finished in 1321; in the 15th century it was restructured, with portals in Hispano-Flemish style. The polygonal apse was built with well-worked granite ashlar. In 1936 Republican militia burned the church, destroying altarpieces and carvings and causing the roof to collapse; the 1982 restoration rebuilt the roof in neo-mudéjar style and moved to it the 15th-century coffered ceiling from the old Hospital de San Salvador. Recent excavations have uncovered a medieval necropolis in the surrounding area.
Picasso Museum-Eugenio Arias Collection
Monument
Opened on 5 March 1985, it brings together some sixty works that Picasso gave to Eugenio Arias Herranz, a native of Buitrago exiled in France who was his barber and friend; it includes ceramics, prints and drawings, and admission is free.
Reservoir of Riosequillo
Nature
Located on the middle course of the river Lozoya, in the sierra de Guadarrama, it forms part of the reservoir network of the Canal de Isabel II, which supplies Madrid with drinking water. Planned in 1947 because of the post-war rise in population, it came into service in 1958 at a cost of over 100 million pesetas; its construction employed prisoners persecuted under Francoism. It dams the river upstream of the meander that surrounds the centre of Buitrago del Lozoya with a gravity dam 56 metres high and 1,060 metres long, one of the longest in Spain, and a maximum capacity of 50 cubic hectometres. In 1994 a small hydroelectric plant was brought into operation, and next to the reservoir a recreational area was set up with the largest natural swimming pool in Spain.
Henry II grants the lordship of Buitrago to the Mendoza family
Historical milestone
The king granted in 1368 the town and lands of Buitrago to the Mendoza family, future dukes of El Infantado, who kept it until the end of the seigneurial regime. The most famous of them, the Marquis of Santillana, lived inside the walled enclosure.