Logbook · 3 places

What to see and do in El Atazar

What to see and do in El Atazar (Sierra Norte, Madrid): 3 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Nature · 1 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of El Atazar

Reservoir of El Atazar 6.9 km

Towns near El Atazar

Spain › Community of Madrid › Sierra Norte › El Atazar

What to see and do in El Atazar

El Atazar
Village
El Atazar is a municipality of little more than a hundred residents, in the Valle Bajo del Lozoya, Community of Madrid, at an altitude of 995 metres above the reservoir that bears its name, closed off by a 134-metre double-curvature arch dam. Its origin possibly goes back to a 12th-century Arab encampment, of which a watchtower survives from the network of watchtowers of the Marca Media; the territory was reconquered by Alfonso VI, thirteen years after Buitrago del Lozoya. In 1368 it passed to the lordship of Buitrago, and in 1490 it obtained the title of town through the mediation of Íñigo López de Mendoza. In the 17th century it reached 212 inhabitants, its highest figure. The village is notable for the church of Santa Catalina, from the 17th century, and the Fuente Vieja, from 1585.
Reservoir of El Atazar
Nature
The Atazar reservoir, the largest in the Community of Madrid, with a capacity of 425 cubic hectometres representing 46% of the volume held back in the region, dams the Lozoya river between slate hillsides. Its construction, begun in 1965 to relieve the water shortage Madrid had suffered since the 1950s, continued until 1972, making it the last reservoir inaugurated by Francisco Franco; the final cost was five times the estimate because of the geotechnical problems of the site's slate. The dam, a double-curvature arch dam, was among the first of its kind in Spain; its cracking made it necessary to stabilise the north slope with concrete, and it has one of the most complex monitoring systems in Spain. Its perimeter is followed by a long-distance footpath.
Inauguration of the El Atazar dam
Historical milestone
Work began in October 1965 and the great arch dam on the Lozoya was opened in April 1972, after its cost had multiplied owing to the geotechnical problems of the slates. Its reservoir is today the largest in the Community of Madrid.