Alpedrete

Alpedrete municipality
coat of arms	Map of Spain
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Madrid
Province :	Madrid
Comarca :	Cuenca del Guadarrama
Coordinates	40 ° 39 ′  N , 4 ° 2 ′  W Coordinates: 40 ° 39 ′  N , 4 ° 2 ′  W
Height :	919  msnm
Area :	12.64 km²
Residents :	14,575 (Jan 1, 2019)
Population density :	1,153.09 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	E-28430
Municipality number  ( INE ):	28010
administration
Official language :	Castilian
Mayor :	María Casado ( PP )

Alpedrete is a municipality in the north-west of the Spanish autonomous community of Madrid . The place is known for its quarries , in which granite is mined , among other things for important monuments in the area. The community is now part of the most important local recreation area for the residents of Madrid ( Sierra de Guadarrama ).

geography

The municipality is located in the Sierra de Guadarrama 47 kilometers from Madrid at an average altitude of 919 meters and has an extension of 12.64 square kilometers.

Quarries

The rock monument honors the most important product

Quarries shape the area around Alpedrete. The granite mined there was used, among other things, for the monuments of the monastery palace of the Spanish kings El Escorial and the French war memorial Valle de los Caídos ("Valley of the Fallen") in the neighboring municipality of San Lorenzo de El Escorial . Many of the granite structures common in Madrid also come from these quarries, such as parts of the Puerta de Alcalá .

history

The first traces of settlement in the area of ​​the municipality go back to the Neolithic Age and are 4000 years old, which is documented in a number of archaeological finds (ceramics, stone tools and megaliths). On the other hand, only a few remains of the wall have survived from Roman times , even if the name of the community is derived from the Latin ad petrum ( near rock). Such claims are difficult to substantiate, since generally few written sources on the history of Alpedretes have survived.

Facade of the church

Only the Islamic expansion in the early Middle Ages from the south coast brought a permanent settlement. In the fertile foothills of the Guadarrama Mountains, the Arabs founded the place, which they called El pedrete because of the rich rock deposits in the area (cf. Spanish piedra - rock).

In the High Middle Ages, the place became a plaything of a long-lasting conflict of interests between Madrid and Segovia because of its extensive pastures. It was not until Alfonso X, the Wise , that Alpedrete finally came under Castilian sovereignty in 1268 and was added to the homogeneous crown estate of the Real de Manzanares . The parish church, consecrated to the Assumption of Mary, testifies to the strategic importance of the place at that time: in the 13th century it was given the garb of a fortified church with loopholes and battlements, which was typical for the area in the Middle Ages . In the 16th century, under the patronage of the noble Mendoza family, who had been the fiefs of the Real de Manzanares since the 14th century , it was richly and extraordinarily furnished inside, which speaks for the lasting importance of the place for its masters. The first census in Alpedrete in 1591 showed that 36 families lived there, all of which - except for the priest - belonged to the common people (pecheros) .

It was not until April 26, 1840 that the town gained official independence from the town of Collado Villalba , which was celebrated in a ceremony. For a long time, the building fabric grew irregularly and hardly planned; Only since the second half of the 20th century has there been a strong expansion with the rise of mass tourism . The first summer visitors to the area around Madrid settled here, which led to the construction of many weekend houses and more and more service companies.

politics

The town hall from 1959, based on the Madrid model, shows the close ties to the metropolis

The political orientation of the mayors changed again and again after the end of Franquism . In the first eight years of the Transición , the Workers' Party ( PSOE ) still had a majority in the local council, but for the next twelve years power changed to Miguel Ángel Alonso Montalvo, who belonged first to the CDS and then to the People's Party ( PP ). After the PSOE ruled again from 1999 to 2003, the PP, with María Casado, has been the mayor since 2003. Under her leadership, a number of large construction projects and infrastructure measures have been carried out, which in recent years has led to increased opposition from parties from different directions and to criminal charges for abuse of office.

climate

Alpedrete has a continental climate with relatively cold summers and winters with occasional snowfall, which is compounded by its proximity to the mountains. The mean annual temperature is between 8 and 12 degrees Celsius, the mean minimum temperature in the coldest month between −3 and 0 degrees Celsius.

education

In Alpedrete there are seven day-care centers (one public, six private), four primary schools and one school with a secondary level.

people

• José Ramón Zaragoza (1874–1949), Asturian painter, died in Alpedrete.
• Juan José Armas Marcelo (* 1946), Spanish writer and journalist, lives in Alpedrete.

literature

• Luis Antonio Vacas Rodríguez: Apuntes para la historia de Collado Villalba, Alpedrete y Los Serranos. El Arte-Ferraz, Madrid 1977.
• Florentino de Andrés Jalvo: Alpedrete. Algo de su historia, de su parroquia y de su patrona. F. de Andrés, Alpedrete, Madrid 1993. ISBN 84-604-6459-8 .
• Esteban Ángel Cotillo Torrejón: Alonso Carrera, un escultor del siglo XVI ligado a la historia de Alpedrete. In: Espacio, tiempo y forma. Series VII, Historia del arte , ISSN  1130-4715 , 24 (2011), pp. 101-119. (PDF document; 23.63 MB) Abstracts in Spanish and English .

Web links

• Website of the municipality whose electronic management and web presence is a pilot project sponsored by the Spanish State
• Municipal data from the Statistical Office of the Madrid Region

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cifras oficiales de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal a 1 de enero . Population statistics from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (population update).
2. ^ Marqués de Loriana: Nuevos hallazgos del vaso campaniforme en la provincia de Madrid. In: Archivo Español de Arqueología 15 (1942), pp. 161-167. A dolmen from that period is also shown by Esteban Ángel Cotillo Torrejón: Alonso Carrera, un escultor del siglo XVI ligado a la historia de Alpedrete. In: Espacio, tiempo y forma. Series VII, Historia del arte 24 (2011), pp. 101–119, here p. 102.
3. ↑ Esteban Angel Cotillo Torrejón: Alonso Carrera, un escultor del siglo XVI ligado a la historia de Alpedrete. In: Espacio, tiempo y forma. Series VII. Historia del arte 24 (2011), pp. 101–119, here pp. 101 f.
4. ↑ Esteban Angel Cotillo Torrejón: Alonso Carrera, un escultor del siglo XVI ligado a la historia de Alpedrete. In: Espacio, tiempo y forma. Series VII, Historia del arte 24 (2011), pp. 101–119, especially p. 115.
5. ↑ See on this name for people who owed taxes to the ruler in the old society of Castile, the Spanish-language Wikipedia article.
6. ↑ La Alcaldesa de Alpedrete, María Casado, "imputada por el supuesto delito de prevaricación" ( Memento of the original of July 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Article in the daily newspaper Diario de la Sierra of June 10, 2012. The mayoress is also called Marisol Casado, see the article La alcaldesa acudirá a declarar como imputada ( Memento of the original of July 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was used automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at La Voz de la Sierra on June 12, 2012.  
7. ↑ David Ballota: La alcaldesa de Alpedrete agradece la subvención de 600.000 euros para la web municipal. ( Memento of the original from May 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Nación Red , February 2, 2013.