Logbook · 12 places

What to see and do in Cadalso de los Vidrios

What to see and do in Cadalso de los Vidrios (Sierra Oeste, Madrid): 12 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 5 Monuments · 1 Nature · 2 Curiosities · 1 Historical milestones · 2 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of Cadalso de los Vidrios

Towns near Cadalso de los Vidrios

Spain › Community of Madrid › Sierra Oeste › Cadalso de los Vidrios

What to see and do in Cadalso de los Vidrios

Cadalso de los Vidrios
Village
Cadalso de los Vidrios is a town of about 3,400 inhabitants located at 804 metres above sea level, on the border of the Community of Madrid with the provinces of Toledo and Ávila. It owes its surname to the glass factories that operated there between the 16th and 17th centuries, when they supplied much of the glassware for the Real Botica (royal pharmacy) of the Monastery of El Escorial; the furnaces remained active until the early 20th century. In Roman times, Marco Fluvio occupied the settlement, then called Cadafalsum, during the conquest of Toledo in the year 193 BC; under Muslim rule, the Peña Muñana served as a defensive watchtower for the city. It preserves the Villena palace, from the 15th century, the church of the Assumption and the caves of the Peña Muñana itself.
Palace of Villena
Monument
A palace in Cadalso de los Vidrios, at the south-western edge of the Community of Madrid, built as a summer retreat by Álvaro de Luna, constable of Castile and favourite of John II, in the first half of the 15th century. It took its name from its next owner, Juan Pacheco, marquess of Villena, who benefited from Álvaro de Luna's fall from grace. It is rectangular in plan, of granite ashlar and fortified appearance, with machicolations and battlements, while its south façade, with Renaissance arcading, was added in later refurbishments. Luis María de Borbón, grandson of Philip V and future archbishop of Toledo, was born here in 1777. Declared a Monumento histórico-artístico (a former Spanish heritage-protection designation) on 3 June 1931, it retains a 16th-century garden around a large pond.
Church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Cadalso
Monument
Built from the reign of Isabella the Catholic onwards, reusing ashlars from the demolished Islamic wall, it reaches almost a thousand square metres and adds five side chapels, a sacristy and a baptismal font resulting from the 16th-century enlargement.
Watchtower of Peña Muñana
Monument
Remains of the Muslim fortified enclosure of the 9th to 13th centuries that watched over the valley from a granite outcrop; little of the watchtower's walling survives, but the hill is still the town's natural viewpoint and the destination of the Hornazo pilgrimage festival.
House of the Wild Men
Monument
Late medieval noble façade whose coat of arms is held by two shaggy figures armed with clubs, the homo silvestris iconography common in Castilian heraldry; the building today houses the town's tourist office.
Glass furnaces of Cadalso
Curiosity
The town's second name comes from its glass kilns, which in the 16th and 17th centuries supplied much of the glassware of the Royal Apothecary of the monastery of El Escorial; production continued until the early 20th century, when it closed for good.
Caves of the Pilar
Nature
Group of nine barrel-vaulted galleries cut beside Calle Real and attributed to the town's Andalusi period; local tradition holds that they linked up with the watchtower of Peña Muñana, a claim that has never been verified.
Gardens of the Palace of Villena
Monument
A 16th-century Renaissance garden laid out behind the palace of the Marquis of Villena, with a large stone pond ringed by a walkway, viewpoints and pavilions; it is listed as a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) together with the palace itself.
White crystal granite quarries of Peña Muñana
Curiosity
The southern and eastern slopes of Peña Muñana yield a granite of great mineralogical uniformity and even tone, sold under the name blanco cristal, with an annual output of close to 8,000 cubic metres.
Cadalso adds the name "de los Vidrios"
Historical milestone
The municipality, until then called simply Cadalso, officially added to its name in 1916 the memory of its glass kilns, an industry documented since the Middle Ages that came to supply glassware to the Royal Pharmacy of El Escorial.
Cadalso's garnacha
Food and drink
The vineyards on granite soil of the district give garnacha reds, to which tempranillo and foreign varieties have been added. The wine fair the village holds has become a landmark event for the wine-growing comarca.
The hornazo of Peña Muñana
Food and drink
A pilgrimage festival at which the locals climb to the spot of Peña Muñana to eat the hornazo, a cake with a boiled egg held by a cross of dough. It is the gastronomic event that opens the fine weather in the municipality.