Colmenar Viejo

Colmenar Viejo is a town and municipality of about 48,614 inhabitants,[2] located in the Community of Madrid, Spain, 30 kilometers north of Madrid on the M-607 motorway.[3] It belongs to the comarca of Cuenca Alta del Manzanares.

Colmenar Viejo
Municipality
Hermitage of Santa Ana.
Flag
Coat of arms
Colmenar Viejo
Location in Spain
Colmenar Viejo
Colmenar Viejo (Spain)
Coordinates: 40°39′32″N 3°45′57″W
Country Spain
Community Community of Madrid
ProvinceMadrid
ComarcaCuenca Alta del Manzanares
Government
 • MayorMiguel Ángel Santamaría Novoa (PP)
Area
 • Total182.6 km2 (70.5 sq mi)
Population
 (2018)[1]
 • Total49,498
 • Density270/km2 (700/sq mi)
Demonym(s)Colmenareños
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code
28770

Main sights

In the town, there are many archeological sites, most of them come from hispanic- visigothic times, with household areas and burials.

Basilica of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción.

The most important tourist attractions places in Colmenar Viejo are:

  • Basilica de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción
  • Ermita de Remedios, saint of the town
  • Visigothic archaeological tombs

Physical environment

Colmenar Viejo's municipality has a size of 182.6 square kilometres (70.5 square miles), the third largest in the province of Madrid, after Madrid and Aranjuez.[4]

Traditional granite mining has been changing Colmenar Viejo's landscape. As a result of livestock farming, mainly cow and horse cattle, grassland has been taking a main role.

A large part of land under Colmenar Viejo's jurisdiction is inside of the Parque regional de la Cuenca Alta del Manzanares (Manzanares Upper Basin Regional Park), causing that land to be under a high protection environmental level. The Navalvillar Grassland is protected by the municipality and, albeit it does not belong to the Park, it is quite rich in flora and fauna.

Demography
Vertical bar chart Demographic of Colmenar Viejo between 1900 and 2009[5]

Cinematography

Estudios Tablada in Madrid used dehesa de Navalvillar as studio, where directors such as Stanley Kubrick, Sergio Leone, Raoul Walsh, Orson Welles, Robert Rossen, Richard Fleischer, Richard Quine, John Milius, Wim Wenders and Robert Siodmak have directed films like El Cid, Spartacus, Alexander the Great, Per qualche dollaro in più, La última aventura, Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo and Conan the Barbarian.[6]

Festivities
  • Fiesta de la Vaquilla, February 2
  • Fiesta de la Maya, May 2
  • Festivities in honour of the Virgen of Remedios, last weekend of August
  • Day of Colmenar Viejo, commemorating the villages endorsement by Ferdinand II of Aragon, November 22

Twin towns

References
  1. Municipal Register of Spain 2018. National Statistics Institute.
  2. "Cifras oficiales de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal a 1 de enero. Madrid: Población por municipios y sexo". Instituto Nacional de Estadística (in Spanish). Retrieved 24 February 2019.
  3. "Colmenar Viejo". Ayuntamiento de Colmenar Viejo (in Spanish). Retrieved 24 February 2019.
  4. "Ayuntamiento". Ayuntamiento de Colmenar Viejo (in Spanish). Retrieved 24 February 2019.
  5. "Series históricas de población". Instituto Nacional de Estadística (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 6 March 2015. Retrieved 26 February 2010.
  6. "Presentación del libro "Colmenar Viejo, Tierra de Cine"". colmenarviejo.biz (in Spanish). 4 May 2009. Archived from the original on 19 August 2009. Retrieved 27 June 2011.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.