Buitrago de Lozoya

Buitrago de Lozoya is a 1,854 inhabitants small town by river Lozoya in Sierra de Guadarrama, in the northern part of the Community of Madrid (Spain). Its old town is very well preserved and was declared BIC (Bien de interés cultural) in 1993.

How do I arrive to Buitrago de Lozoya?

  Buitrago de Lozoya isn't as well connected as other places in the region but it can still be reached easily from Madrid. 

• Bus: there are buses every hour to Madrid (aprox. 1 hour 30 minutes) from Buitrago de Lozoya, reaching Plaza de Castilla Bus Station. 
• Car: if you rented a car, Buitrago de Lozoya can be reached from Montejo de la Sierra (aprox. 20 minutes), Torrelaguna (aprox. 25 minutes), Rascafría at Sierra de Guadarrama National Park (aprox. 30 minutes) or from Madrid (aprox. 1 hour).

History

The history of Buitrago de Lozoya begins in the 11th century, when the king Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile gave privileges to this area in order to be repopulated. In 1368 king Henry II of Castile gave it as a manor to Pedro González de Mendoza, mainteining it on the House of Mendoza till the early 19th century. The period in which Buitrago reached its peak of importance was between the 15th and 16th centuries, particulary under Íñigo López de Mendoza, Marquess of Santillana. From the 16th century onwards it lost its strategical importance and started losing population, only recovering that importance during the Peninsular War (in this period the town walls were burnt by Napoleon troops). It wasn't until after the Spanish Civil War when Buitrago de Lozoya recovered some importance due to the construction of a reservoir in river Lozoya and the motorway A1 that connects Madrid and Burgos.

What can I visit in Buitrago de Lozoya?

  Buitrago de Lozoya is a nice town to walk and discover why it was named BIC. It's perfect as a first stop when visiting the north of the Community of Madrid on a day trip.

These are Buitrago de Lozoya's main attractions:

• Buitrago de Lozoya Castle: 15th century castle with a mixture of Gothic and Mudéjar styles that was used as a palace too. Joanna la Beltraneja, Isabella I of Castile's niece and claimant to the throne of the Crown of Castile, lived here.
• Buitrago Town Walls: walls with Muslim origin that were built around the 11th century, restored in the 15th century by the Crown of Castile. It is divided in two parts, adarve alto and adarve bajo, being the former the one that keeps more defensive elements (such as towers or the castle).
• St. María del Castillo Church: Gothic church first built in the 14th century that has suffered some changes with time. Its main entrance is in Flamboyant style and its tower is beautifully built in Mudéjar style. It was damaged during the Spanish Civil War and rebuilt in Neomudéjar style.
• Picasso Museum (11-13:45 and 16-18 Tue-Fri, 10-14 and 16-19 Sat, 10-14 Sun; free): small museum that contains around 60 works given by Picasso to his barber and friend Eugenio Arias, native from Buitrago de Lozoya.
• Buitrago Old Bridge: Medieval bridge built over river Lozoya.
• Forest Palace: early 17th century palace built in Renaissance style by Iñigo López de Mendoza for the House of Mendoza. Today just some ruins remain from the palace.

Buitrago de Lozoya Castle

St. María del Castillo Church

Montejo beech forest

Only 15 km northeast it can be found Montejo de la Sierra (353 inhabitants), a small village located in entrance to Sierra del Rincón. Like many of the villages in the area, it keeps traditional housed made of blackboard (named arquitectura negra) that make them worth to have a walk. Close to it is located Montejo beech forest (guided tour booking on advance; free), one of the southernmost beech forests in Europe (part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe. This wonderful place is full of beeches and other types of flora and fauna, making it one of the most visited beech forests in Spain (particulary in autumn). Continuing to the border with Castile-La Mancha it can be reached the picturesque village of La Hiruela (57 inhabitants), that keeps traditional architecture, apiaries and coal cellars. There's a small museum, La Hiruela Ethnographic Museum (guided tours on Sat and Sun), that shows the visitor the traditions and way of living in this mountanous part of the Community of Madrid. Going 32 km south from Buitrago de Lozoya it's located the town of Torrelaguna, 4,760 inhabitants. This place has some important religious building such as St. María Magdalena Church, 14th century Gothic church comanded by Cardinal Cisneros (native from the town) with an interesting Plateresque altarpiece; and cute squares such as Plaza Mayor or Plaza de la Montera. Contuing a bit there's one of the most rural destinations in the region of Madrid, Patones (541 people). It's one of the brightest examples of arquitectura negra and declared BIC in 1999.

Where can I eat in Buitrago de Lozoya?

In case of eating in Buitrago de Lozoya, a good idea can be the restaurant Portachuelo (Avenida de Madrid 21).

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Posted in: Europe,Madrid region,Spain

Duisburg

Duisburg is a 498,590 inhabitants city lying in the confluence of rivers Rhine and Ruhr, considered to have the largest fluvial harbour in all over Europe. It's the 15th largest city in Germany and the 5th in North Rhine-Westphalia. Duirbug is one of the entrances to Ruhr region (or Ruhrgebiet), an area of 53 towns and 5.3 million people that used to have very important iron and steel industries as well as a former amount of coal mines. Nowadays all this heritage has been transformed into art galleries, sport centers...

How do I arrive to Duisburg?

  Duisburg is very well connected with other cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and the neightbouring countries.

• Train: there are often trains to important destinations within NRW like Oberhausen (aprox. 5 minutes), Düsseldorf, Essen (aprox. 15 minutes), Dortmund (aprox. 35 minutes), Xanten (aprox. 45 minutes) or Cologne (aprox. 50 minutes). 
• Bus: there are buses to many cities in NRW state like Düsseldorf, Essen or Cologne.
• Car: having a car, from Duisburg many destinations can be reached easily such as Oberhausen (aprox. 15 minutes), Krefeld (aprox. 20 minutes), Düsseldorf and Essen (aprox. 25 minutes), Mönchengladbach and Xanten (aprox. 40 minutes), Bocholt and Dortmund (aprox. 45 minutes) or Cologne (aprox. 1 hour).

History

Duisburg is a result of the incorporation numerous smaller towns to the proper city. It's said to have been founded in the 5th century as a marketplace on the Westphalian Hellweg trade route (in the border between the Frankish Empire and the Duchy of Saxons). Around 740 it became one of several royal courts of Francia and it was one of the conquered places by Normans in 883 and in the Middle Ages it was part of the Hanseatic League. Duisburg gained importance in the 16th-century, when the cartographer Gerardus Mercator (creator of seminal globes and atlases as well as the Mercator projection, still used in modern world maps) lived, worked and taught in Duisburg for forty years. Since the late 19th century, the city is renowned for its steel industry (being Central Europe's leading site in this sector) but coal-mining never was as important as in other places on the Ruhr. Since the mid-20th century Germany's heavy industries have lost importance and Duisburg had to go through a major structural transformation (losing thousands of jobs in the steel mills while creating new ones in the services and logistics sectors). Nowadays the University of Duisburg-Essen (Ruhr University), with 42,000 students, is in the top 10 of largest German universities and, thanks to the fact that it owns the largest inland harbour of Europe, it also aims to be the terminal of a "New Silk Road" with China.

What can I visit in Duisburg?

 The city's main districts are Altstadt and Innenhafen, district that is located around Duisburg's fluvial harbour. It's recommended to have a cruise to discover the largest fluvial harbour in Europe too. 

These are Duisburg's main attractions:

• Lehmbruck Museum (12-17 Tue-Fri, 11-17 Sat-Sun; 9€/ 5€  adults/ students): popular Modern art museum focused on 20th century international sculptures with works by Alberto Giacometti, Alexander Calder, Max Ernst or Eduardo Chillida, surrounded by a very charming park.
• Duisburg City Hall: Renaissance building from 1902 that replaced several predecessor buildings, located at the exact place of the former royal court. On its square theres 19th-century Mercator well, dedicated to the famous cartographer, one of the greatest Duisburgers of all times.
• Alte Markt Archeological Site: site with remains of the earliest stages of Duisburg's history. 
• Salvator Lutheran Church (10-17 Tue-Sat, 11:15-13 Sun; free): late Gothic church comissioned by the Order of the Teutonic Knights in 1415 at the place where used to be another one since the 9th century. It is the oldest church in Duisburg and here are buried Gerardus Mercator (16th-century geographer, cosmographer and cartographer famous for his Mercator world map of 1569) and Johannes Clauberg (founding rector of the first University of Duisburg).
• Museum of Cultural and Local History of Duisburg (10-17 Tue-Sat, 10-18 Sun; 4.50€/ 2€  adults/ students and people under 18): museum that shows the history of Duisburg and displays Mercator Treasury, a collection of globes an maps made by Gerardus Mercator. It also has Köhler-Osbahr collection, a collection of coins and antiques from all over the world and ethnohistorical artefacts from every culture as well as a museum on the city of Königsberg (current Kaliningrad, Russia).
• Explorado Children's Museum (15-18 Tue-Thu, 10-19 Fri-Sun; 16.50€/ 12€/ free  adults/ retiree and students/ kids under 3): huge museum focused on children aged 4-12 with a mixture of fun activites, physical training and learning on the history of grain processing in the inner harbour, archeology, building, communication and media.
• Museum Küppersmühle (14-18 Wed, 11-18 Thu-Sun; 9€/ 4.50€  adults/ students): museum placed in a former storing mill modified by architects Herzog & De Meuron (awarded with Pritzker prize) that displays German works of art by artists like Joseph Beuys, Jörg Immendorff or Georg Baselitz, and international temporary expositions too.
• Kaiserberg Botanical Garden (free): botanical garden located near the Duisburg Zoo whose origins date back to 1890 with focus on the Alpinum and the Heidegarten.
• German Inland Waterways Museum (10-17 Tue-Sun; 4.50€/ 2€  adults/ reduced): museum located in an Art Nouveau building that informs about the history and present of inland navigation, illustrated by several museum ships, focusing on Duisburg harbour.
• Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord: park that is regarded as one of the most important touristic attraction in the city. It's built in a steelworks dismantled where many outdoors activities can be done like snorkelling in a former gas tank, going up to the top of a blast furnace or climbing a coal cellar.
• Hamborn Botanical Garden: municipal botanical garden and aquarium with about 1,000 species outdoors and in greenhouses. Major features of the garden include a landscape park, rhododendrons, fuchsia and primula collections, aromatic and medicinal plants and ferns as well as an aquarium and greenhouses for more exotic plants.
• Duisburg Central Mosque: traditional Ottoman style mosque built in 2008, one of the largest mosques in Germany, that hosts a center for encounter as well as a library and archive of Islamic documents too.
• Tiger & Turtle (free): huge sculpture created in 2010, when Ruhrgebiet was declared European Capital of Culture, that looks a lot like a rollercoster where the visitor can walk on it and its beautifully illuminated at night. HuffPost ranked it as the 6th in the list of Most Extreme Staircases.

Exhibition at the German
Inland Waterways Museu

Tiger & Turtle

Linn Castle Museum

Close to Duisburg there are many things to do. One of them, for example, is visiting Krefeld, a 227,020 inhabitants city located 20 km southwest from Duisburg that used to be nicknamed Velvet and Silk City because of its economic past. In the city it can be visited Linn Castle Museum (10-18 Tue-Sun from Apr to Oct; 10-17 Tue-Sun from Nov to Mar; 7€/ 3€  adults/ students and people under 18), a 12th century castle that shows the life within it, a collection of Roman and Franconian burial ground and a Baroque hunting lodge built in the 18th century for elector Clemens August. In Krefeld here is an interesting art museum too, Krefeld Art Museum (11-17 Tue-Sun; 12€/ 4€/ free  adults/ students/ people under 18), a Contemporary art museum composed of Kaiser Wilhelm Museum (7€/ 3€/ free  adults/ students/ people under 18) and Haus Lange and Haus Esters (7€/ 3€/ free  adults/ students/ people under 18), two 1920s residential houses designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in the Bauhaus style. The city has also a nice botanical garden, Krefeld Botanical Garden (8-18 from Apr to Oct; 9-17 Mon-Thu and 9-12 Fri from Nov to Mar; free), containing about 5,000 species and varieties of plants in a plot edged with deciduous trees, shrubs and conifers.

Bocholt Old Town Hall

From Duisburg, going 60 km north (very close to the German border with the Netherlands), it can be visited the nice city of Bocholt (Bokelt in Dutch), a place with 71,099 inhabitants and an important manufacturing history and which was centered on the textile industry for most of the 19th and 20th centuries. One of its hightlights is visiting its Altstadt, located around the nice Bocholt Old Town Hall, a 17th century Dutch Renaissance style building designed by Jan van Lintelo and restored after the damages suffered in WW2. To get deeper into Bocholt's textile history the visitor can visit LWL-Industrial Textile Plant Museum (10-18 Tue-Sun; 4€/ 2€/ free  adults/ students/ people under 16), museum that shows the history of textile production in Münsterland that preserves steam-powered machines that are operational (so you can see the process of weaving on different generations of weaving machines) or a spinning mill. Not far from the city center it's placed Diepenbrock Palace, a 18th century Baroque Schloss own by von Graes zu Loburg family that still preserves Rococo decoration in its rooms and is surrounded by a nice park. Going 15 km wes there's Anholt Castle (11-17 Tue-Sun from May to Sep; 18€/ 15€/ free  adults tour for 90 minutes/ adults tour for 60 minutes/ people under 16), a Baroque water Schloss that was the residence of the prince of Salm-Salm, considered one of the biggest and most beautiful noble's residences in Münsterland, and inside it's embellished with Flemish tapestries and paintings, especially by Dutch masters. It's surrounded by a 19th century park that imitates a Swiss landscape around Lake Lucerne.

Where can I eat in Duisburg?

Duisburg is a very important industrial hub and port so its population is very multicultural and that can be seen in the restaurants that are located in the city. Some of the choices are the Laosian restaurant Poukhoun (Heerstraße 256), the Mongolian restaurant Mongo's (Philosophenweg, Am Innenhafen 17-18) or the Italian Enoteca La Trattoria (Friedrich-Wilhelm-Platz 2).
Duisburg is home of one of Germany's best-selling beers, König Pilsener, as well as a popular lemonade brand, Sinalco.

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Posted in: Europe,Germany,North Rhine-Westphalia