Rural Spain Properties

AREA GUIDES >> RURAL PROPERTIES IN MADRID

At a glance
Madrid is Spain’s most central region, sitting high on a plateau some 2,000-plus metres high. The variety of this one-province region is difficult to beat – residents can enjoy any form of culture in the capital (whether bullfighting or flamenco, or the latest opera or musical) and yet be in the countryside and even ski within minutes.

Properties
photoThere are some great towns and villages within an hour of the city that offer all shape and size of properties. The towns of Aranjuez, Chinchon and Manzanares el Real are but a few examples of attractive Castillian towns that can provide all types of property opportunities. 

Airports
As you’d expect, Madrid has a major international airport (called Barajas) with very good links to practically everywhere.

Valladolid airport can be considered close enough to serve both the region and the capital together with the soon-to-be-opened Cuidad Real airport in Castilla la Mancha. Both will have high speed train links to the capital which make them practical alternatives to flying to Barajas. 

Climate
Madrid is dry and very hot in the summer and cold, though often bright and sunny, in the winter.

Historic value
photoMadrid is home to some fascinating pieces of Spain’s historic puzzle – El Escorial is dominated by the 16th century palace and monastery of Philip II while close by is The Valley of the Fallen where the dictator Franco used prisoner labour to carve his own 20th-century basilica out of the rocks.

Madrid itself still carries the battle scars of the Napoleonic wars together with the more recent civil war.

The stunning summer palace at Aranjuez together with the beautiful 16th-century university and its surroundings at Alcalá de Henares are deservedly UNESCO world-heritage listed.

Culture
The capital is choc-full of festivals all year round with something for all tastes and all nationalities. There are jazz, opera, rock, dance, theatre and cinema festivals; you can watch a play in everything from English to Lithuanian.

Food and drink
In Madrid you can find cuisine from any of the four corners of the world and from all Spain’s autonomous regions. However, Madrid and the rest of the region still love cooking their traditional dishes which can, like in the rest of Spain, range from village to village and even from bar to bar.

Madrileño classics include cocido - a stew where the stock is traditionally served first with minestrone noodles as a soup, followed by the meat and veg – and tripe (callos).

Madrileños like all kinds of tipples – from their own annis (made in charming Chinchón) to vermouth as a Sunday aperitif, and local wines made in the south of the region - Arganda, Navalcarnero and San Martín de Valdeiglesias - which are rapidly gaining in quality.

photoNatural beauty
Skiing, mountain biking, rock climbing and horse riding are all possible in the villages of the Sierra Norte or the Sierra de Guadarrama.

Madrid has one protected nature reserve, the Parque Natural de la Cumbre, Circo y Lagunas de Peñalara, 798 hectares containing peaks ranking between 1,640 metres and 2,430 metres.