Rural Madrid, Spain
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Rural Madrid, Spain
“I have seen dawn and sunset on moors and windy hills coming in solemn beauty like slow old tunes of Spain.” – John Edward Masefield
The Outskirts of Madrid
The countryside around Madrid is quite beautiful, with a mixture of small villages seperated by idyllic vistas of olive groves, vineyards and miles and miles of farmland. Every town surrounding the capital is filled with historic and cultural artifacts going back to the Roman days.
The Castle of Manzanares
The 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 Santillana reservoir at the foot of Sierra de Guadarrama mountain range. It was raised on the river Manzanares, as a residential palace of the House of Mendoza, in the vicinity of an ancient fortress that was abandoned once the new castle was built.
The lands bordering the upper reaches of the River Manzanares, rich in pastures and forests, were the subject of frequent disputes between different powers that emerged after the Reconquista. The communities of Villa y Tierra de Segovia and Madrid had several disputes over the 13th century, which were resolved in the 14th century by King John I of Castile with the donation of the comarca to his steward, Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza.
Photographing the Countryside
Shooting the Spanish countryside requires a car, lots of water and lots of food to get you through the hot days. With a little bit of research its not hard to find amazing locations and wonderful places to shoot. Madrid is surrounded by lots of beautiful castles, bridges and ancient statues (known as the “Patrimony”).
