Logbook · 4 places

What to see and do in Montejo de la Sierra

What to see and do in Montejo de la Sierra (Sierra Norte, Madrid): 4 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Nature · 1 Activities · 1 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Montejo de la Sierra

Beech forest of Montejo 6 km

Towns near Montejo de la Sierra

Spain › Community of Madrid › Sierra Norte › Montejo de la Sierra

What to see and do in Montejo de la Sierra

Montejo de la Sierra
Village
Montejo de la Sierra is the chief town of the sierra del Rincón, in the north of the Community of Madrid, bordering the province of Guadalajara near Somosierra; it has about 404 inhabitants and its centre sits at 1,148 metres, at the foot of the Majada de la Peña and above the río de La Mata, while the municipal area exceeds 2,000 metres to the north. The territory combines meadows and deciduous and coniferous woodland with a Pyrenean oak wood and, above all, the Montejo beech forest, 250 hectares protected since 1974 and inscribed in 2017 on the World Heritage list as a European primary beech forest. The Mata stream, which crosses the village, later joins the río Lozoya. Its patron saint festivities include Holy Week, the Romería, the Judas, El Mayo, Carnival and Our Lady of Nazaret.
Beech forest of Montejo
Nature
The Hayedo de Montejo is a 250-hectare beech wood on the lower slopes of the sierra de Ayllón, in the municipality of Montejo de la Sierra, in the north of the Community of Madrid on the border with Guadalajara, next to the Jarama river; it is one of the southernmost beech woods in Europe. Its beeches, over twenty metres tall, mix with oaks, birches and hollies. Together with the beech woods of Tejera Negra, in Guadalajara, and La Pedrosa, in Segovia, it preserves the damp forest that once covered the Sistema Central. It was declared a Sitio Natural de Interés Nacional (a former national category of nature protection in Spain) in 1974 and, in 2017, Unesco added it as a World Heritage site, within the extension of the primeval beech forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe.
Guided trails of the Montejo Beech Forest
Activity
The beech wood can only be entered on free guided visits with limited places, which set off from the Biosphere Reserve Information Centre in the village and follow three different routes: the viewpoint path, the hillside path and the river path.
Legal protection of the Montejo beech forest
Historical milestone
A decree declared the 250 hectares of this southerly beech wood, owned by the villagers since the 15th century, a Natural Site of National Interest. It was a pioneering decision, and in 2017 UNESCO added it to its list of world heritage beech forests.