Colmenar Viejo


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

Main sights

In the town, there are many archeological sites, most of them come from hispanic- visigothic times, with household areas and burials.
The most important tourist attractions places in Colmenar Viejo are:
Colmenar Viejo's municipality has a size of 182.6 square kilometres, the third largest in the province of Madrid, after Madrid and Aranjuez.
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, 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

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.

Festivities