Logbook · 3 places

What to see and do in El Berrueco

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

1 Villages · 2 Monuments

How far each place is from the centre of El Berrueco

Watchtower of Torrepedrera 2.5 km
Dam of El Atazar 7.8 km

Towns near El Berrueco

Spain › Community of Madrid › Sierra Norte › El Berrueco

What to see and do in El Berrueco

El Berrueco
Village
El Berrueco is a municipality of around 795 inhabitants in the Sierra Norte of Madrid, overlooking the El Atazar reservoir, beneath the granite massif of La Cabrera, whose name refers to the rocky hill that overlooks the village from the north. The earliest settlements date from the Bronze Age, and the present-day centre was established between the 10th and 11th centuries; from the Islamic period a watchtower survives, part of the network of towers that separated the kingdom of Toledo from the Christian kingdoms. It belonged first to the Tierra de Uceda and later to the archbishopric of Toledo, until in 1592 a Privilegio Real (royal privilege) granted it independence and the status of a town, with the right to appoint mayors and install a gallows and pillory. It preserves the Romanesque-Mudéjar church of Santo Tomás Apóstol and one of the few pillories still standing in Madrid.
Dam of El Atazar
Monument
Built between 1965 and 1972, it is a double-curvature arch dam 134 metres high above its foundations with a 484-metre crest, with more than eight kilometres of internal inspection galleries and a complete monitoring system.
Watchtower of Torrepedrera
Monument
An Andalusi watchtower built between the 9th and 10th centuries as part of the defensive system of the Middle March, whose centre lay at Talamanca del Jarama; from its hilltop it linked up with the watchtowers of Arrebatacapas, Venturada and El Vellón.