Logbook · 7 places

What to see and do in Villa del Prado

What to see and do in Villa del Prado (Sierra Oeste, Madrid): 7 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

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

How far each place is from the centre of Villa del Prado

Towns near Villa del Prado

Spain › Community of Madrid › Sierra Oeste › Villa del Prado

What to see and do in Villa del Prado

Villa del Prado
Village
Villa del Prado is a municipality of about 7,700 inhabitants in the Alberche basin, which here, at 430 metres, marks the lowest point of Madrid; that is why it is called the vegetable garden of Madrid, for its irrigated fields. Its origin goes back to the Arab castle of Alhamín, around which a small population settled that, after the conquest of the area by Alfonso VI in 1078, was repopulated with people from the north and ceded to the archbishopric of Toledo. In 1436 Álvaro de Luna bought from the archbishopric the jurisdiction of Alhamín, which comprised Alhamín, Méntrida and Prado, then the most populous settlement. The lordship later passed to the Mendoza family, and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza granted Prado the privilege of town status. It preserves the Gothic church of Santiago Apóstol, from the 15th and 16th centuries, a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection).
Church of Santiago Apóstol de Villa del Prado
Monument
The church of Santiago Apóstol, a Gothic building of the 15th and 16th centuries on which Hernán González de Lara and Pedro de Tolosa worked, has two towers, one of them completed in the second half of the 16th century. It preserves Gothic plasterwork and paintings on the vaults, and was already recorded in 1921 in the Historia de Madrid y de los pueblos de su provincia, by Juan Ortega Rubio. Declared a historic-artistic monument of provincial interest on 30 December 1980, it now holds the rank of Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection).
Hermitage of Nuestra Señora de la Poveda
Monument
A 17th-century Baroque hermitage, with Baroque portals on the outside and three Baroque altarpieces with statuary and oil paintings inside, that houses the Virgen de la Poveda, patron saint of Villa del Prado (Madrid), beside the río Alberche. Every 8 September the Virgin's pilgrimage climbs up to it, within patron-saint festivities that run from the 7th to the 13th with encierros, bullfighting events and numerous peñas, some with more than thirty years of tradition. The hermitage is also the setting, on Easter Monday, for the so-called procession of the Caridad, with Mass and the distribution of blessed bread.
Alberche floodplain in Villa del Prado
Nature
The lowest point in the Region of Madrid, at 430 metres above sea level, lies in the bed of the Alberche as it passes through this district; its floodplain waters the intensive farming that has earned the municipality the nickname of Madrid's huerta.
The purchase of the jurisdiction of Alhamín
Historical milestone
Álvaro de Luna acquired in 1436 from the archbishopric of Toledo the jurisdiction of Alhamín, which included El Prado, the town's original name. After the constable's fall the seigneury passed to the Mendoza family, who granted the place the privilege of township.
Madrid's market garden
Food and drink
The meadow of the Alberche made the municipality the capital's main supplier of vegetables, with almost half of the district given over to cultivation. Its vegetables and fruit were being exported to Madrid as early as the nineteenth century.
The barrel of wine for the newborn
Food and drink
A local custom of giving a cask of aged wine to the children born in the village, a reflection of the weight the wine industry has had here. At Semana Santa empanadas, cakes and retorcidos are also baked.