""Aerial view of El Atazar” by General Directorate of tourism. Ministry of economy and technological innovation. Comunidad de Madrid. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 IS

Everything seems to point to that were some shepherds, who founded the village beyond the century XII, using the repopulation of an Arab outpost. In 1.368 the municipality was annexed to the Manor of Buitrago, and in 1.490 the Marquis of Santillana, Don Íñigo López de Mendoza, El Atazar awarded the category of villa, thus making a certain level of freedom and autonomy. Would not be up to 1.833, year in which the modern territorial division was carried out, When the municipality was definitely annexed to the community of Madrid. It currently houses around a hundred neighbors.

“El Atazar Street” by Pavlemadrid Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

Perhaps the resource that attracts more tourism in this area of the Sierra Norte is the reservoir of el Atazar. Built in 1.972 towards the end of the Franco dictatorship, It is the largest of the community (with a few 1000 has surface), and caters to the 45% of the same. Its extension borders with the municipalities of El Atazar, Patones, Cervera de Buitrago, El Berrueco, Bridges old and Robledillo de la Jara. In effect, at the end of the year 50 of the last century there was a great period of drought, so began the construction of the dam to prevent depletion of water reserves in Madrid. Although the budget of the work increased five-fold due to geotechnical problems, the dam was at the time a true technical prowess, Since that was one of the first built in Spain with a vault of double curvature, with a length of 484 meters in his coronation. The management of the reservoir belongs to the network of the Canal de Isabel II. The town is located at your feet, on a maximum level of some 134 meters. The Lozoya River, regulated by the dam, It is a natural border with the municipalities of Patones, and the flow streams of the pass, the Renegal and the river Riata.

“Atazar reservoir“, Film Madrid, public domain

Apart from its functions of water supply, the reservoir is famous for the quantity of water sports that are practiced, Since it allows navigation without motor. Whether on your own or with the accompaniment and material of the companies It offers services of active tourism in the environment, you are in one of the best aquatic environments of the community of Madrid.

Finally, El Atazar occupies large part of this area's trails travel: the path of the Genaro (GR - 300) and the GR-10 run through this area on some of its stages. In our web page and in the of the El Atazar Association You can inform you about the same.

But the reservoir is not the only tourist resource that has the municipality, Since we find equally interesting religious buildings. An example is the Church of Santa Catalina, Baroque period, that it was built with masonry slate in the 17TH century (the chancel dates from the previous century). Although it suffered a great loss of altarpieces and images during the Civil War, retains part of its attraction.

Church of Santa Catalina de Alexandria, El Atazar Association

In terms of popular architecture, We see in the town a typically medieval streets distribution, especially in the old part of the village. In the surroundings of the town are still preserved remains of fences, tinados groups, ancient terraces intended for crops and were circular of slate and quartzite. They are Eras and the old source.

Eras of threshing (Eras caliphates), El Atazar Association

Water trough, El Atazar Association