Mountains, faith and art
Natural site - Santa María del Paular Monastery
The beauty of the natural setting of Rascafría, immersed in the most beautiful part of the Lozoya Valley, at the foot of the Sierra de Guadarrama and next to the peaks and lakes of Peñalara, cannot be summed up in these simple lines. All this beauty led Enrique II to found the Monastery of Santa María del Paular here in the 14th century, a jewel of monastic art with a rich collection of paintings by Vicente Carducho. We can admire 16 of the 56 original paintings, on loan from the Prado Museum; the other 40 works were dispersed during the turbulent times of the Disentailment of 1836.
Rascafría is a very romantic place, and for this very reason, on Valentine's Day, homage is paid to the Archpriest of Hita, with a dramatised tour, interpreted in poetic prose, in the real settings of the Book of Good Love. In autumn, game and mushrooms become the absolute protagonists on the menus of its restaurants, not forgetting the prized trout from the Lozoya River. Rascafría has all the charm of a mountain village where you can enjoy the cool waters of the river Lozoya in summer, as well as strolling and skiing on its snowy peaks in winter.
Location
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