Chinchón

Human settlement in the Tajuña valley goes back to the Neolithic period, when caves in the area were in use, the best known being the Cueva de la Mora. On the Cerro del Salitral, archaeologists have found the remains of an Iberian town complete with its necropolis. Under Roman rule Chinchón became an agricultural settlement; a Roman funerary slab was once found serving as a door lintel in a house on the Plaza Mayor.

In 2017 Chinchón became the first town in the Comunidad de Madrid to join the association Los Pueblos Más Bonitos de España.

The Plaza Mayor is the heart of the town. Its arcaded houses with wooden balconies were built in stages, the square closing into its current irregular shape by the seventeenth century. Three storeys high, the buildings carry 234 timber balconies known as *claros*, supported on upright posts with carved corbels.

Over the centuries the square has been used for royal celebrations, theatre, jousting, bullfights, executions, and religious ceremonies. Film crews have found it useful too: the bullfighting scene in *Around the World in 80 Days* was shot here, and Orson Welles used its Castilian vernacular architecture to stand in for Macau in his 1968 film *Una historia inmortal*. In 1992 residents voted informally on whether to repaint the square blue, as it had been in an earlier century; green won, the colour the townspeople had always known.

The Iglesia de la Asunción de Nuestra Señora began in 1534 as a Gothic chapel attached to the counts' palace, designed by Alonso de Covarrubias, but was not completed until 1626, construction stalled for 48 years while the Counts of Chinchón and the church authorities argued over conditions of patronage. The third count, Diego Fernández de Cabrera, brought in master builders who had worked on El Escorial to finish it. French troops burned the church in 1808; it was restored twenty years later.

The building mixes Gothic, Plateresque, Renaissance and Baroque elements. The altarpiece's central painting, the *Asunción de la Virgen*, was painted around 1812 by Francisco de Goya, commissioned by his brother Camilo, who was chaplain to the counts. Nearby stands a tower that belonged to the earlier parish church of Nuestra Señora de Gracia, destroyed by the French in 1808.

The church itself was never rebuilt and lies buried at the tower's foot, but the tower still rings for services and has kept a clock, installed in 1755, that strikes the hours. This gives rise to the local saying that Chinchón has "a tower without a church and a church without a tower." The castle, originally built before the sixteenth century and destroyed in a Comunero attack in 1520, was rebuilt by the third count in the Renaissance style, low, broad, and designed to resist artillery fire.

Chinchón, close to Madrid, has kept its own character, its houses clustered on hills in a landscape of browns, greys and ochres around a tangle of lanes and the Plaza Mayor. The square took its present irregular shape by the seventeenth century, ringed by three-storey houses with 234 wooden balconies, and it has hosted royal celebrations, theatre, bullfights and executions.

The church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción mixes Gothic, Plateresque, Renaissance and Baroque, and an Assumption by Goya presides over its high altar. Nearby, the Torre del Reloj is all that remains of the church of Nuestra Señora de Gracia, destroyed in the war against the French, hence the saying that Chinchón has a tower without a church and a church without a tower. Anís, olive oil, garlic and wine are local products, and the Passion play is a festival of national tourist interest.

Chinchón joined Los Pueblos Más Bonitos de España in 2017. The label is awarded by a private association, not the state: a village applies and is audited against around 40 criteria, from how its historic buildings are conserved to the upkeep of its streets, and members are reviewed and can lose it. Chinchón is one of 2 members in Comunidad de Madrid, out of 126 in Spain. See all heritage towns in Comunidad de Madrid.

There is no rail service to Chinchón. Regional bus line 337 (green bus) runs roughly every half hour on weekdays from Conde de Casal bus station, in Plaza Conde de Casal near Conde de Casal metro station on line 6 in Madrid; check the schedule at the Centro de Turismo on Plaza Mayor in Madrid. By car, take the M-50, M-40 or M-30 ring roads to the A-4 (direction Córdoba), exit at km 37 under the arched footbridge onto the M-305 toward Aranjuez (watch for a sharp left bend and two lanes merging), then follow signs at the roundabout along the M-404.

The town is built on a hillside with narrow medieval streets, so once you arrive, walk. Local shops sell traditionally made iron, wood and cloth crafts; the market around the Plaza Mayor offers onions, garlic, melons and bread. The plaza itself has open-air cafés; notable eating places nearby include La Balconada on the Plaza Mayor, Bat's Cave/Mesón Quiñones (Cuevas del Murciélago) at Calle Quiñones 20, the Parador de Chinchón at Generalísimo 1, and Mesón Cuevas del Vino at Calle Benito Hortelano 13.

Chinchón is one of the designated wine-production zones of Madrid; local wine drunk on the spot is good quality, though the cheapest bottles are best avoided. The town also produces its own anís liqueur, called Chinchón.