El Club · Chinchón

The Casa de la Cadena is a baroque manor house from the late seventeenth century located in the Plaza del Convento in Chinchón, in the province of Madrid, in the historic center of the town. It is a building protected as a Monument and linked to the historical-artistic civil heritage of Chinchón. Its historical relevance comes, among other episodes, from the stay of Philip V during his visit to Chinchón on the night of February 25, 1706. This royal connection has turned the building into one of the best known heritage references of the municipality. From the architectural point of view, the facade is arranged in three sections and has a linteled door; above it is a coat of arms with a hand holding a cross and the traditional devotional inscription. Inside, there is a two-story courtyard with galleries, with Tuscan columns on the first floor and straight feet with footings on the upper floor. The Community of Madrid has described it as a unique example of a manor house within the urban fabric of Chinchón, and it has been the object of heritage rehabilitation actions in the 21st century to conserve this property, which is representative of the local civil heritage.

Built at the end of the 15th century, although it was demolished in a communist attack in 1520. The III Count of Chinchón, years later decided to build the current one on the foundations of the previous one. It was well preserved until 1705, when it suffered the consequences of the War of Succession. In 1808, during the three-day siege of Chinchón during the War of Independence, it was plundered and burned. From then on, part of its materials were used to repair roads, fences and houses. Its last use in the present century was as a liquor factory. At kilometer 17 of the road to Titulcia stands another castle: Casasola Castle. It dates from the 15th century and was the lodging of politicians and military men favorable to Alfonso XII. It is Gothic in style and is privately owned.

The construction of this building began in the XVI century, although it was not founded until the XVII century by the V Counts of Chinchón. The characteristic architecture of the Spanish Baroque is appreciated. The building has a church with a Latin cross plan and the convent. We can emphasize the cloister composed of two floors, the lower one made of stone with semicircular arches and the upper one that is closed with simple brick walls and linteled windows with stone frames. On the outside of the building we can appreciate the great austerity in the use of materials such as brick and masonry. The pantheon of the V Counts of Chinchón is made of marble of various colors and is located in the choir of the Church of the Convent. The sisters currently make exquisite sweets that can be purchased in the convent.

Of baroque style, this hermitage of brick facade and linteled door, was the church of the old Hospital de la Misericordia, founded in the XVII century. Inside it has a single nave and an altarpiece with the image of Our Lady of Mercy. On the altarpiece there is an anonymous painting of good quality from the 17th century, with the figure of Santa Lucia. After the seizure of the religious goods by the State, it was closed to worship for many years and dedicated to other uses. In 1906 it was recovered and worship was resumed, creating the Confraternity or Brotherhood of Our Lady of Mercy. The festivity in her honor is celebrated every year, the first Sunday of September.

Annexed to the current Parador de Turismo, is the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, which historically belonged to the convent of St. Augustine. The church, like the whole complex, is Baroque in style. It consists of a single nave with side chapels, which were used as cells for prisoners, when the convent became a prison during the Spanish Civil War. Some baroque frescoes stand out on the right side of the transept, with vivid colors, grecas, leaves, columns and other ornaments. In 1846 it was dedicated to the veneration of the Virgin of the Rosary. The church had a beautiful baroque altarpiece as the main altar, which burned down in October 1929, without damaging the image of the Virgin. The festivity is celebrated annually on the third weekend of September.

Built in the 18th century over a previous Romanesque one from the 11th century, it was probably the oldest religious building in the urban environment of Chinchón. It has three altarpieces, that of Our Lady of the Remedies, that of San Antón and that of San Esteban. It has a nave that ends in a semicircular apse of Romanesque style, on the outside you can see the typical corbels of this style that support the eaves.

It is dedicated to San Roque, patron saint of the city. Its construction dates from the first half of the 16th century. Of baroque architecture, with brick walls with masonry boxes very similar to that of Our Lady of Mercy. This hermitage has two altarpieces in its interior, one with the image of Our Lady of Grace, patron saint of the city and another larger one with an excellent carving of San Roque from 1716. It can also be seen inside a magnificent banner of 1744, embroidered in gold and silver, with the image of the Saint. The patron saint festivities are held in his honor on August 16 of each year.

The parish church houses an original canvas by Francisco de Goya on its altar. In 1534 construction work began but did not finish until 1626. In its interior one can sense the passage of time through the architectural styles that have been shaping it: Gothic, Plateresque, Renaissance and Baroque. The church suffered important damages during the War of Independence that affected fundamentally to the cover and the ornaments. Francisco de Goya painted a canvas to decorate the church, "The Assumption of the Virgin" located in the center of the main altar in 1812, at the request of his brother Camilo, Chaplain of this church.

La Laguna de la Espadaña is a wetland in the municipality of Chinchón, in the Community of Madrid, located in the vicinity of the Tajuña River and with a sheet of water accompanied by reeds on its banks. Due to its location, it fits into the landscape of the fertile plains and inland wetlands of southeastern Madrid, where water, marsh vegetation and valley floor soils explain its natural interest. It is an area of small landscape format but of great local environmental value, visible as a waterlogged or lagoon area with helophyte vegetation, especially reeds. Its interest for the visit lies in the contrast between the rural environment of Chinchón and this wetland enclave, which adds diversity to the landscape and acts as a refuge for fauna associated with wetlands. The available information presents it as a natural resource of scenic interest within the municipality, linked to the Tajuña corridor. The sources consulted do not include a specific figure of protection or detailed technical data on surface area, origin or water regime; therefore, it should be described with caution as a local wetland of quiet observation and environmental value.

The Laguna de San Galindo is a natural wetland in the municipality of Chinchón, in the Community of Madrid, located at 520 m altitude in the basin of the Tajo and, more specifically, in the sub-basin of the Tajuña. It has an area of 2.25 ha of wetland and a protection zone of 3.79 ha; the official record identifies it as a single lagoon, privately owned and with private and public autonomous management. Its origin is karstic, linked to the partial dissolution of the underlying gypsum, a characteristic geological feature of this type of wetland enclaves. What can be observed is a small sheet of water integrated into a landscape of meadows and wetlands associated with the lower Tajuña, with marsh vegetation on its banks. The official documentation highlights its faunistic and landscape relevance, and emphasizes that it is of ecological interest because it has not been transformed into a crop field, which is rare in this section of the basin. Its interest for the visit is not in the intensive recreational use, but in the reading of the natural landscape and in the observation of a wetland of gypsiferous origin that is part of the network of catalogued wetlands of the Community of Madrid. The card of the Spanish Inventory of Հumid Zones describes it as a functional ecological unit of ecological interest and points out its value as a wildlife refuge. In the local context of Chinchón, this site reinforces the environmental value of the Tajuña valley and helps to understand the presence of natural lagoons in a region very marked by sedimentary processes and evaporitic geology. It is an area of interest for demanding visitors for its combination of landscape, biodiversity and geological uniqueness.

The Laguna de San Juan is a wetland of natural origin located between Chinchón and Titulcia, in the lower course of the Tajuña River, with an area that local sources place at around 40-47 hectares and a temporary character, linked to groundwater and rainwater. It is a protected area of the Community of Madrid, declared a Fauna Refuge in 1991, with a remarkable diversity of reed beds, cattails and other marsh plants. From its observatories there is a wide view of the water, the perimeter reeds and the smooth reliefs and gypsiferous cliffs of the environment, a landscape of transition between meadows, drylands and slopes that is especially interesting for the observation of waterfowl and migratory birds. The enclave is known for its biological and educational value, and the municipality of Chinchón highlights it as the most important wetland of the municipality and one of the main bird reserves of the Community of Madrid.[14 The lagoon appears in local and nature guides for its ornithological interest and for the environmental restoration that allowed the recovery of a space that had become very degraded. The best time to visit it is usually spring and autumn, when there is more bird activity and better conditions for observation; being a wetland of variable water, the appearance of the place changes a lot depending on the rains and the season.

Laguna de San Juan is a natural wetland in the municipality of Chinchón, in the surroundings of the Tajuña valley, considered by the City Council as the most important and characteristic wetland of the municipality. It has an area of about 40 hectares and is listed as a Wildlife Refuge and Protected Natural Area by Decree 5/1991 of the Community of Madrid, with a special value for the conservation of fauna, flora and landscape. Its origin is natural and its dynamics depends on subway contributions and rainfall; several sources also describe it as a temporary lagoon or very conditioned by clogging and restoration work carried out in the past. The most interesting thing for the visitor is the open view over a sheet of water framed by reeds, rushes, bulrushes and gypsiferous reliefs of the environment, a landscape very different from the nearby agricultural countryside. It is a very popular spot for bird watching, as it concentrates aquatic species and riverside passerines, and has bird observatories and interpretive panels. It also appears in informative and hiking routes along the stretch between Titulcia and Chinchón. Its interest lies in the fact that it summarizes well the recovery of a wetland in Madrid: biodiversity, legal protection and reading of the landscape. The best time to visit it is usually spring and autumn, when the water level and bird activity are usually more favorable for observation, although the temporary nature of the wetland makes its appearance varies considerably depending on the rains.

Ethnological museum that exhibits the life and traditions of Chinchón. It is located in an old inn founded in the early nineteenth century, to accommodate reapers, muleteers and people passing through. The numerous rooms and spaces that can be contemplated evoke other times in which the rural inhabitants used their ingenuity to build and adapt to their daily work, machines, utensils and tools with which their "chores" were more bearable... Shady alcoves, picturesque kitchens, farm implements, old machinery where the famous anise of Chinchón was distilled...

The Chinchón Tourist Office is a municipal tourist information office located in the Plaza Mayor, in the old Municipal Laundry, in Chinchón (Madrid), with coordinates 40.14033, -3.42330. It was inaugurated in 2001 and acts as a point of attention for visitors to provide documentation, guidance and practical information on tourist resources and activities in the municipality. It is not a historical monument in itself, but a tourist facility installed in a building that has been reused as a heritage site: the old municipal laundry. Its value lies in its function of welcoming and interpreting the urban area of Chinchón, one of the main heritage destinations in the Community of Madrid. Its location in the Plaza Mayor integrates it into the historic heart of the town, from where visits to the local heritage are articulated. The information available presents it as one of the most important references for visitors, for its role in the dissemination of routes, heritage and cultural activities of the town.

Founded by the IV Counts of Chinchón D. Luis Jerónimo Fernández de Cabrera in the XVII century, it is built in brick and masonry. During the War of Succession to the Spanish crown it hosted the Archduke Charles for a few days. With the passage of time it became a center of humanist formation, during the XVIII and XIX centuries, with chairs of theology, grammar and Latin. After the disentailment of Mendizábal it became a court of the Judicial Party until the beginning of the 20th century. The part formerly occupied by the monks, today is the Parador de Turismo de Chinchón.

It is listed as one of the most beautiful in the world. The Plaza Mayor is the classic medieval square, which is an aggregate of different houses with arcades, balconies that here are called "clearings" built the whole set at different times. It has an irregular shape, apparently arbitrary in its form but at the same time is simple, clear and hierarchical which makes it unique. A meeting place where the cattle fairs began to be held. The council bought some houses in 1499 to hold their meetings and it is in this same place where the Town Hall is located today. In 1502 Juana La Loca and Felipe el Hermoso visited Chinchón passing through our Plaza Mayor. In 1683 the Plaza Mayor was closed, opening enough holes to allow processions and carriages to pass through. It has two fountains, one in the upper part that was formerly the watering place for livestock and another in the lower part that was a public washing place, beautiful enclosure that today houses the Tourist Office. The functions that this square has had are very varied: market, livestock market, royal celebrations, proclamations, playground, games of canes, sacramental autos, executions, film set and what is best known today are its bullfighting celebrations.

Historic theater with a curtain painted by Luis Muriel depicting images of the city. It is built on the ruins of the old Palace of the Counts, sadly disappeared after the War of Spanish Succession. It has this name because this author wrote and signed in Chinchón the comedy "El Blasón de los Chaves de Villalba" when he was staying at the Palace with the Counts of Chinchón. It was built in 1891 by the Society of Harvesters. The facade is Renaissance and inside there is a fantastic canvas with views and allegories of the city that serves as a backdrop and is the work of Luis Muriel. It has capacity for 325 people and its structure is reminiscent of a typical corral. In the entrance hall you can see a plaque in honor of the well-known actor born in Chinchón José Sacristán.

In this place was located the parish church of Our Lady of Grace. We have evidence of it already in the fifteenth century. It was destroyed during the War of Independence, the Clock Tower remained standing although throughout history it has undergone several restorations. In the first, which took place in the sixteenth century, the clock was placed, but the most important was carried out in the nineteenth century after suffering great damage caused by the fire caused by Napoleon's troops in 1808. In this last restoration a new roof and new bells were placed. Even today it can still be seen in the lower part of the tower where it was attached to the church, to see that the stone is unpolished. There is a popular saying that says "Chinchón has a tower without a church and a church without a tower".