Logbook · 6 places

What to see and do in Rascafría

What to see and do in Rascafría (Sierra Norte, Madrid): 6 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 1 Nature · 1 Activities · 1 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Rascafría

Towns near Rascafría

Spain › Community of Madrid › Sierra Norte › Rascafría

What to see and do in Rascafría

Rascafría
Village
Rascafría, with about 1,700 residents, sits at 1,200 metres in the Upper Valley of the Lozoya, in the sierra de Guadarrama, whose name may come from "cold rocks" because of the snows of Peñalara visible from the village, or from "cold holm oak" because of its holm oaks. Its municipal area, the largest and westernmost in the valley, includes the hamlet of Oteruelo del Valle and borders to the south on the Cuerda Larga, where the río Lozoya rises between the Cabezas de Hierro; the Peñalara nature park holds its glacial lagoons. In the shadow of the village, two kilometres away, stands the Monastery of Santa María de El Paular, founded in the 14th century as the first Carthusian monastery in Castile, in a setting of dense oak and pine woods. The natural pools of Las Presillas and the Giner de los Ríos arboretum complete the surroundings.
Monastery of Santa María de El Paular
Monument
A monastery located in the municipality of Rascafría, on the Madrid side of the sierra de Guadarrama, in the Lozoya valley, within the Sierra de Guadarrama national park. Founded in 1390 by order of Henry II as the first Carthusian monastery in the kingdom of Castile, it was a Carthusian house until the secularisation of 1835; since 1954 it has been home to a Benedictine community. It preserves a Gothic church, a polychrome alabaster altarpiece from the 15th century and a baroque tabernacle begun in 1718. Declared a Monumento Nacional (formerly the highest level of state heritage protection in Spain) in 1876, it is state-owned and attached to the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. Its name may derive from the white poplars, or pobos, that once grew along the banks of the Lozoya in this spot.
Bridge of el Perdón
Monument
The puente del Perdón is a granite ashlar bridge over the Lozoya river, in the sierra de Guadarrama, facing the monastery of Santa María de El Paular, in Rascafría. The first bridge was erected in 1302, but the river's floods and the winter climate wore it down, and in the mid-18th century it was replaced by the present one, with three round arches, resting places and stone benches. It served the Carthusian monks as an access route to the Batanes paper mill, from which came the paper on which the first part of Don Quixote was printed, published in Madrid in 1605. Given the valley's isolation, the authorities used to hold trials there: the condemned would appeal their sentence beside the bridge and, if pardoned, returned safe and sound, which is where its name comes from.
Summit, cirque and lagoons of Peñalara
Nature
The Cumbre, Circo y Lagunas de Peñalara natural park, in the central part of the sierra de Guadarrama, in the municipality of Rascafría, was declared a protected area on 15 June 1990 and covers 768 hectares. It comprises the Peñalara peak, the highest in the range at 2428 metres, three small cirques, two moraines and several glacial lagoons, among them the Laguna Grande, the Laguna de los Pájaros and the Laguna de los Claveles. Its vegetation combines high-mountain scrub, pastures and Scots pine woods in the lower areas with alpine meadows and rocky outcrops higher up; its fauna includes the black vulture and the Spanish imperial eagle. It is reached by several paths from the Cotos pass, and offers hiking, climbing and cross-country skiing in winter.
Route to the Purgatorio waterfall
Activity
A classic walk in the upper Lozoya that sets off from the surroundings of the monastery of El Paular and covers some 6.5 kilometres through pine woods to the waterfall that the Aguilón stream forms over the granite boulder fields of the Guadarrama massif.
Founding of the Charterhouse of Santa María de El Paular
Historical milestone
The charterhouse of Santa María de El Paular stands in the Lozoya valley, in the municipality of Rascafría, within what is today the Sierra de Guadarrama national park. John I of Castile ordered its founding in 1390 in a spot where he used to hunt, and it was the first charterhouse of the kingdom: it gathered the monks of Saint Bruno for four and a half centuries, until 1835. The monumental complex has been declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) with monument status since 1876 and is state-owned, attached to the Ministerio de Cultura. Since 1954 it has operated as a Benedictine priory. Its name appears to derive from the abundance of white poplars or pobos on the banks of the Lozoya, which would have given rise to a pobeda or pobolar in the spot.