Logbook · 3 places

What to see and do in Villamantilla

What to see and do in Villamantilla (Sierra Oeste, Madrid): 3 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments

Towns near Villamantilla

Spain › Community of Madrid › Sierra Oeste › Villamantilla

What to see and do in Villamantilla

Villamantilla
Village
Villamantilla is a town of about 1,660 inhabitants in the Sierra Oeste of Madrid, at 550 metres above sea level, whose uncertain origin goes back to a Roman settlement and Visigothic tombs beside the Perales river. According to tradition, the village was founded by shepherds who came from Segovia in the 12th and 13th centuries, drawn by the abundance of pasture, and broke away from that land in 1615, under Philip III, on payment of 56,250 maravedís. In the Cerro la Horca site there existed the privilege of executing wrongdoers, although there is no record that it was ever exercised; hence its residents are known as the colgaos. It keeps alive the ronda de los quintos on New Year's Day and appears in Nazarín, the novel by Galdós, whose protagonist tends to the village's smallpox sufferers.
Church of San Miguel Arcángel de Villamantilla
Monument
A 16th-century parish church with a sturdy bell gable holding bells of different sizes; inside it keeps the coffered ceiling that covers the nave, an 18th-century altarpiece and remains of 16th-century wall painting uncovered during recent works.
Stone fountains of Villamantilla
Monument
Two matching 19th-century granite fountains with cross-shaped bases, one beside the church and the other on Calle Don José de la Morena; opposite the hermitage of San Antonio an 18th-century washing place and drinking trough also survive.