Guadarrama Park

Historical and religious events

The creation of Real de Manzanares The Royal Site of San Lorenzo The Confiscation Valmayor Reservoir The development of capital

Alfonso X and the creation of “Real de Manzanares”

During the Reconquista many people from Madrid came to recover Seville and the territory was repopulated by Segovia.

Alfonso X creates "El Real de Manzanares" to protect the territory that belongs to the locals, but it creates common ground of grass for both villas: Segovia and Madrid.

The territory is divided into small gardens, with its characteristic stone fences, and extensive common pastures

The locals are mainly a forest land use, while taking advantage of Segovia and wood pasture

Alfonso X and the creation of “Real de Manzanares”

That is the origin of smallholder landscape of these villages, often made of stone, natural vegetation and crossed by many paths.

Grassland Today most of those small gardens and livestock use is mostly

The villages that were part of the Royal become independent over the centuries, but was preserved forest that has led to the Parque de la Cuenca Alta del Manzanares

Regional Park Cuenca Alta del Manzanares is the largest protected natural area area of the Community of Madrid one of the greatest ecological value and represents about 6.6% of the territory of Madrid. Unesco declared it a Biosphere Reserve in 1993.

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The Royal Site of San Lorenzo and the historical Fence

The history of San Lorenzo de El Escorial is linked to the construction of the Monastery.

In 1558 Philip II appointed a commission to seek a suitable place for its location. The small village of El Escorial meeting the appropriate physical condition to undertake such a venture for its abundance of forests, quarries, and hunting, the quality of its waters and its location in the geographical center of the Iberian Peninsula.

In 1562, a year before starting the construction of the Monastery, Philip II began to acquire land adjacent to the lot where he was going to build the Monastery, with the intention of creating a royal territory, called the Royal Site of El Escorial, uses recreation, hunting and farming.

San Lorenzo de El Escorial

Felipe II takes La herrería, La Fresneda, el Campillo y Monesterio, and protects the four properties and the core of El Escorial with a near "10 miles in circumference and 10 or 12 feet high made of stone dry“.

In the present territory can differentiate various types of vegetation: ash, oak, chestnut and maple trees in the lower Montpellier.At higher elevations (1000-1200 m), pine and oak dotted with junipers.

Much of the township is included within the Scenic Spot of Pinar de Abantos and Zone of The Blacksmith, protected natural area established in 1961

San Lorenzo de El Escorial

The year 2006 was declared the Royal Site of Cultural Interest in the category of Historical Territory, in the category of historic territory, with the name "Escorial: Monasterio, Site and Natural and Cultural Environment”

Inside are the Paraje Pintoresco del Pinar de Abantos and Zona de La Herrería (declared a nature reserve in 1961) and the Arboretum Luis Ceballos.

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The Confiscation

The Confiscation went on sale after condemnation, and by public auction, land held by the so-called "dead hand", for example the Catholic Church or religious orders. Also sale public lands and lands of the municipalities.

Took place in different phases, from the late eighteenth century to the mid nineteenth century and of the move to private ownership of large forests.

The areas of pine and oak were left out of the process, a fact that has led to the reduced presence of private farms in mountain areas, where public forest ownership, state and municipal predominates

In 1859, the newly formed Corps of Engineers managed to save from confiscation 6 million hectares, which were included in the Catalogue of municipal forests.

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Valmayor Reservoir The growing water needs of the

province of Madrid led to the construction of a large reservoir.

Construction of the dam was completed in 1976 and Valmayor was carried out on the river Aulencia, but receives its major input from the Guadarrama River.

The reservoir includes several ecosystems of high environmental value, such as riparian vegetation (willow and ash) and oak

His great ecological interest is given by an important hub for various wintering birds (mallards, cormorants, gulls, etc.).

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The development of main city

Since the Middle Ages, Madrid has enjoyed steady growth which involves the annexation of populations and increases their needs: transport, energy, water, communications ...

Madrid at the time of the Catholic Monarchs

The development of main city

In the nineteenth century Habsburg dynasty Madrid became the capital of the Kingdom. The city collects a larger population than the province, with an obvious macrocephaly

Since 1869 there is a sharp increase in the contribution of migration: in the range 18 years the population of the capital has grown more than in the past one hundred years between 1750 and 1850.

This acceleration is explained by the social and economic consequences of successive disentailing processes, breaking down the traditional agrarian economy.

The development of main city In 1948 begins the process of

annexation to Madrid thirteen neighboring municipalities; Aravaca, Barajas, Canillas, Canillejas, Chamartin de la Rosa ... through its length of 66 km ² to 607 km ² today. Growing shanty towns.

In 1973 he inaugurated the first section of the M-30, the first ring road of the city. We continue to build new bypass roads (M-40, M-45, M-50)

Highways increased further fragment the territory and the massive use of private vehicles

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