Village
San Martín de Valdeiglesias is the head town of the Sierra Oeste of Madrid, with about 9,300 inhabitants, beside the San Juan reservoir, on the Alberche river, at 676 metres, at the western edge of the province, bordering Ávila and Toledo. It entered history in the 13th century, when a small hamlet formed around a hermitage dedicated to San Martín de Tours, encouraged by the monastery of Santa María de Valdeiglesias; in the 14th century the monks gave it town status, with charter and privileges. That medieval splendour is reflected in its old town, a web of sloping streets climbing up to the Coracera castle, from the 15th century. It also has a Renaissance church laid out by Pedro de Tolosa, and its albillo and garnacha wines were already praised by Cervantes.
Monument
A 15th-century fortress built at the order of Don Álvaro de Luna as a residence and hunting lodge, with a pentagonal keep and a barbican some four metres thick; declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 1985, it lodged Isabel la Católica in 1468.
Monument
A Renaissance church in the Herrerian manner attributed to Pedro de Tolosa, master of works under Juan de Herrera at El Escorial. Its plain granite fabric and clean volumes bring the architectural language of the court of Felipe II to the Alberche valley.
Nature
The Embalse de San Juan reservoir spreads across the municipalities of San Martín de Valdeiglesias, El Tiemblo, Cebreros and Pelayos de la Presa, next to the puerto de San Juan, fed by the waters of the río Alberche and its tributary the río Cofio; it is reached via the M-501, the road of the reservoirs. Built in 1955, it has a capacity of 138 cubic hectometres and covers 650 hectares, beneath which a 126-metre, eight-arch bridge, a hermitage and several mills were submerged; its gravity dam reaches 78 metres. It is the only reservoir in the Community of Madrid where swimming and motor boating are permitted, as well as sailing and water-skiing, with about fourteen kilometres of beaches, among them the Playa Virgen de la Nueva, the only one in the region to fly the Blue Flag.
Nature
A beach on the San Juan reservoir that has held the Blue Flag continuously since 2018; it concentrates supervised bathing, sailing and water skiing in the only body of water in Madrid where motorised boating is permitted.
Curiosity
Miguel de Cervantes praised the wines of this town in several of his works; today it gives its name to the San Martín subzone of the Vinos de Madrid Denomination of Origin, created in 1990 and focused on red garnacha and albillo grown on brown granitic soils.
Curiosity
One of the subzones of the Vinos de Madrid Denomination of Origin, with 2,276 registered hectares that account for close to 24% of total output; it sits on granite and slate soils and lives on garnacha and albillo real grapes.
Activity
A route of some fourteen kilometres laid along the trackbed of the Madrid-Almorox railway, whose branch towards the Tiétar was never brought into service: in 1934 a train made a symbolic run over the 7.5 km to Pelayos and none ever passed again.
Curiosity
Beneath the waters dammed since 1955 lie a medieval bridge 126 metres long with eight arches, several mills and the original hermitage of the Virgen de la Nueva, later rebuilt beside the reservoir; they only surface in years of severe drought.
Historical milestone
Henry IV recognized his sister Isabella as heiress of Castile in September 1468 on the field beside the royal road where the Bulls of Guisando stand. The notarial act was drawn up on the 19th; the stone boars lie today within the Ávila province, but the pact was forged in the lands of this town.
Food and drink
The town's oldest crop is the vine, with albillo real for the whites and garnacha for the reds. As early as 1513 Alonso de Herrera described the albillo planted here, and Cervantes praised these wines in several of his works.
Food and drink
Patatas revolconas, mashed with paprika and pork scratchings, are the most deeply rooted spoon dish of the valley. In sweets, the locality preserves arrope, a thick syrup of boiled must, and pan-fried retorcidos.