Colmenar Viejo
Camino de Madrid
Colmenar Viejo is the first proper town on the Camino — a place with character, services, and a reason to linger. You enter through the Ermita de Santa Ana, where there's a fountain to refill your bottles after a steep climb up from the valley. There's another steep pull up Calle Santa Ana to reach the Basílica de la Asunción de Nuestra Señora, one of the finest examples of late Gothic architecture in the Comunidad de Madrid.
The town has bars, restaurants, a pharmacy, and shops — everything you need for a comfortable stop. If you walked from Madrid, you've covered around 35 km to get here. If you started at Tres Cantos, it's about 10.5 km. Either way, the Basílica alone makes it worth the stop.
The town's name translates roughly as "Old Beehive" — a nod to its long tradition of apiculture. The Basílica dates to the 15th century and is considered one of the most important Gothic churches in the Madrid region.
From Colmenar Viejo, the terrain changes. You'll leave the suburban feel behind and enter more open, rolling countryside with scattered granite boulders. The Sierra de Guadarrama grows closer with every hour. The path to Manzanares el Real follows cañadas through grazing land, crossing the Río Manzanares several times.
