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Bridge of el Perdón

Rascafría, Sierra Norte, Madrid

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

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Bridge of el Perdón

Monument · Rascafría, Sierra Norte, Madrid

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.

Photo: Diego Sanz Siguero (CC BY 3.0)

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