Monasterio

Remember this post? Well the penultimate photo was of el Monasterio de Santa María la Real de Valdeiglesias, part of a photo exhibition of a forgotten Madrid. I was particularly captivated by this photo and decided I would find out as much information as possible about these monastery ruins.

What I found out was that it was only 30 kilometres from Germán's flat in Villaviciosa so one Sunday afternoon-evening I asked him whether we could go take a look. The architecture student didn't take much convincing and we headed off towards Pelayos de la Presa.

Listening to the Walter Mitty soundtrack - I sound silly saying this but - it felt like an adventure.

Here's a link to the website where you can read about the monastery's architecture, history (including 138 abandoned) and the foundation that now protects it.

Unfortunately it was closed off with a padlock and barbed wire with no sign showing times open to the public or anything like that. We did in fact see one sign; interestingly it told of how the Community of Madrid has made the monastery a conservation project as a form of work for desempleados (the unemployed). 

We didn't want to go away without taking a proper look from the outside, and with the help of a little hill behind it, we did manage to see in and appreciate it - even if it wasn't quite how we expected.

Seeing as we were already in the right village, we decided to go look at the pantano de San Juan. It's quite important reservoir and in the summer apparently it's crawling with people on boats and enjoying water sports. However, it was quite spooky at night and completely deserted.