Manzanares el Real
Encyclopedia
Manzanares el Real is a 7,250 inhabitant town in the northern area of the autonomous Community of Madrid. It is located at the foot of The Pedriza, a part of the Sierra de Guadarrama
, and next to the embalse de Santillana (the Santillana reservoir).
Sierra de Guadarrama
The Sierra de Guadarrama is a mountain range forming the main eastern section of the Sistema Central, the system of mountain ranges at the centre of the Iberian Peninsula. It is located between the Sierra de Gredos in the province of Ávila, and Sierra de Ayllón in the province of Guadalajara...
, and next to the embalse de Santillana (the Santillana reservoir).
Main sights
- the New Castle of Manzanares el RealNew Castle of Manzanares el RealThe New Castle of Manzanares el Real, also known as Castle of los Mendoza, is a palace-fortress erected in the 15th century in the town of Manzanares el Real , next to the reservoir of Santillana at the foot of Sierra de Guadarrama.Its construction began in 1475 on a Romanesque-Mudéjar hermitage...
, the best conserved castle in the Community of Madrid. Construction commencing in 1475, it has been used in several motion pictures, most notably El CidEl Cid (film)El Cid is a historical epic film, a romanticized story of the life of the Christian Castilian knight Don Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, called "El Cid" who in the 11th century fought the North African Almoravides and ultimately contributed to the unification of Spain.Made by Samuel Bronston Productions in... - the Old Castle of Manzanares el Real is the ruin of a former fortress, also known as Plaza de Armas. Only two walls remain standing, now integrated into a garden complex. It was built in MudejarMudéjarMudéjar is the name given to individual Moors or Muslims of Al-Andalus who remained in Iberia after the Christian Reconquista but were not converted to Christianity...
in stone graniteGraniteGranite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
with brick curbing. - church of Nuestra Señora de las Nieves, founded in the early 14th century. It has a nave and two aisles, separated by arcades on stone columns. The nave, in Romanesque styles, ends into a pentagonal presbyteryPresbytery (architecture)The presbytery is the name for an area in a church building which is reserved for the clergy.In the oldest church it is separated by short walls, by small columns and pilasters in the Renaissance ones; it can also be raised, being reachable by a few steps, usually with railings....
. The church has also a 16th century Renaissance portico - hermitage of Nuestra Señora de la Peña Sacra
External links
- Official website
- The Castle of Manzanares el Real - History and photos