The best MTB trails around Santa Cruz De La Zarza

For its tower, which is worth visiting, and its tree-lined plaza where you can relax in the shade.

The Tower is the icon of Villarejo de Salvanés, it is a unique model of a keep among the constructions of medieval fortresses. Around it there are remains of the walls and rooms that completed the complex of the old castle of the town, occupied for several centuries by the knights of the Order of Santiago. The Plaza de la Constitución concentrates a good part of the monumental Villarejo de Salvanés, opposite the Tower is the church of San Andrés Apóstol, imposing and with tower-shaped buttresses that give a defensive appearance to the building. And one corner is occupied by the Casa de la Tercia, headquarters of the Encomienda Mayor de Castilla and current Ethnographic Museum. An interesting place for fans of the seventh art is the Museo del Cine, the first professional film museum in Spain.

“Picantón” trail that sometimes appears to go deep, adorned by the landscape that surrounds it.

It is a shame that only the keep of the entire walled building is preserved, but it is also fortunate to miss out on enjoying this architectural beauty, whose shape is peculiar and unusual in this type of fortress.

The specific constitution of this land favors the construction of homes that guarantee the stability of roofs and walls.

Fuentidueña de Tajo Kilometer 0 The ruins of the castle reveal the strategic town of Fuentidueña de Tajo on the river bank, a passageway for important communication routes since Roman times. In the Middle Ages, the Via del Esparto was very popular, one of the most valuable products in those times in the Las Vegas region, which ran on a primitive Roman road and reached Esparteros Street, in the center of Madrid. On the way up from the castle is the Fuente de la Dueña or Fuente Salobre, it is a limestone pylon rebuilt in the 19th century and a key link in the historical foundations of Fuentidueña. The “owner” of the fountain and responsible for the name was Doña Urraca, lady of the fortress for a time, formerly called Santiago due to its connection with the order and popularly known as Torre de Piquillos, a few ruins on the hill where the fountain springs. spring. The old watchtower, the fountain, the church of San Andrés and the Plaza de la Constitución, where the Clock Tower is located, make up a valuable heritage complex in one of the most important passes of the Cañada Real Soriana Oriental in the Tagus Valley. The livestock route crosses the Tagus Natural Trail in the streets of Fuentidueña, crosses the town to the river bank and changes banks over a historic iron bridge from the 19th century. The Tagus Bridge is a magnificent work of civil engineering inaugurated in 1867. The designer of the project was the architect José de Echevarría, who sought collaborators in France within the Eiffiel team and used riveted iron beams to build a solid bridge in a fundamental step of the Tajo plain, in the transit of the Cañada Real Soriana Oriental and the Camino Real de Valencia, an ancient Post Road and route of peasants and merchants since the Early Middle Ages. The first mechanical means to cross the Tagus riverbed was a rope boat, later replaced by a rope bridge to withstand unforeseen floods, but it was destroyed by General Prim's troops in the 19th century.

The Fuentidueña de Tajo bridge is an engineering work from the mid-19th century that restored the passage through this river on the way to Cuenca. It is the oldest large metal bridge in Madrid. This work allowed communications to be modernized at the time of its execution.

The brackish water spring that flows behind the church and the fact that it was under the rule of Doña Urraca, queen of León, give it the name Fuentidueña (Source of the Owner). This town was already important in Al Andalus, since it had a castle. During the reconquest, the castle of Santiago was built, under the military order of the same name, which led the advance and defended the square. Although the castle is in ruins, its proximity to the Tagus and its orchard give it a special charm.