Alcobendas

Alcobendas is a municipality in Spain belonging to the Community of Madrid. It is located 15 km north of the capital and 669 m above sea level. It limits with the municipalities of San Sebastián de los Reyes, to the north; Madrid, to the west and south; and Paracuellos de Jarama, to the east. In 2022 it had a population of 117,041 inhabitants.

Symbols

The heraldic shield that represents the municipality was officially approved on March 29, 1962 with the following coat of arms:

Shield in tablecloth: first, of silver, the blossomed cross of gules; second of silver, the eagle of saber; third, of sigh, the castle of silver. To the bell, crown of Count.

Official State Gazette No. 83 of 6 April 1962

Geography

The center of the town is located at an altitude of 669 m above sea level. The municipality of Alcobendas borders the municipalities of Madrid, San Sebastián de los Reyes and Paracuellos de Jarama.

Continuo urbano entre Alcobendas y San Sebastián de los Reyes. Alcobendas is to the south; that is, to the right in this photograph

Historically, Alcobendas and San Sebastián de los Reyes have formed an urban continuum, being separated only by two continuous streets: Avenida de España (the left sidewalk with respect to the beginning of the road belongs to Alcobendas and the right sidewalk to San Sebastián de los Reyes) and Avenida de Madrid (even numbers are in the San Sebastián municipality while odd numbers belong to the Alcobendense municipality). Currently, and due to the growth of both, they share those mentioned above, in addition to Cabo de Gata street and Albufera avenue (both administratively belong to San Sebastián de los Reyes, although a small part of it falls within the municipal area). de Alcobendas through the roundabout that joins them with Calle del Embrujo and Avenida de Pablo Iglesias), Calle de Gloria Fuertes (even numbers are in the municipality of San Sebastián while odd numbers belong to the municipality of Alcobendas), the Calle de Francisco Largo Caballero (administratively belongs to Alcobendas but the beginning of the street is in San Sebastián territory), Cerro del Tambor park (administratively belongs to San Sebastián de los Reyes although a small part of it enters Alcobendas), Calle de Manuel de Falla (belongs to Alcobendas, with the exception of number 91, which is part of San Sebastián de los Reyes), Calle de Isabel II (whose final part belongs to Alcobendas and ends in a dead-end street) where they are numbers 3, 5 and 7 and Avenida del Juncal (administratively belonging to San Sebastián de los Reyes although a small part of it enters Alcobendas).

In addition, Alcobendas is one of the four municipalities that forms an urban continuum with the capital Madrid together with Pozuelo de Alarcón, Majadahonda and Coslada.

Specifically, the Encinar de los Reyes connects with the Hortaleza district with the following streets that cross the municipal area that divide both municipalities:

• Calle del Camino del Cura (Alcobendas) and Carretera del Mediodía (Madrid). One sidewalk belongs to the municipality of Alcobendense (where the Centro Comercial El Encinar is located) and the other to the municipality of Madrid (from number 4 to 74). On the other hand, in the fourth section of the Camino del Cura is the municipal border at the height of the number 233 coinciding with the final part of the street of Agatha Christie (Madrid), which covers the number 185 to 269. Here is the private urbanization El Encinar de Nuevo Mundo turning slightly to the left. Next to the entrance to the urbanization, there is also the number 130 of the Camino de la Huerta (Madrid), with whose street is also linked.
• Calle del Encinar (Alcobendas). It runs through Alcobendas until reaching the roundabout of the confluence with the street of the Camino del Cura la y Carretera del Mediodía in which it leads to the second turn to the right, it enters Madrid.

In addition, there are a number of streets that lie along the edge of the municipal area. Specifically, these routes would be: the Camino Viejo del Cura (Madrid), the Camino Ancho street (Alcobendas) and the Camino Viejo de Alcobendas (Alcobendas).

On the other hand, Alcobendas also forms an urban continuum with Madrid (Fuencarral-El Pardo district). This can be clearly seen on the M-603 road (Fuencarral to Alcobendas). In addition, the avenue of Monte de Montelatas connects the M-603 and with a road that leads to a roundabout of the Ronda de la Comunicación (Madrid) in the Telefónica de Las Tablas District. Unlike the next mentioned avenue, you can only circulate with a vehicle since being on a highway pedestrians cannot cross the division. It should be noted that in the La Moraleja business park is Avenida de Europa (Alcobendas), also close to the municipal area that divides both towns. This road is in the shape of an inverted "U", whose beginning connects with the Plaza de Atenas that leads to Calle del Pórtico de la Gloria (Madrid) and at the end connects with another roundabout (located further south) of the Ronda de la Communication.

Lastly, Alcobendas shares Mount Valdelatas with the municipality of Madrid, this being one of the most frequented areas of the Cuenca Alta del Manzanares regional park. Specifically, 89 of the 290 hectares belong to the municipality of Alcobendas and the rest to Madrid.

Northwest: Madrid	North: San Sebastian de los Reyes	Northeast: San Sebastian de los Reyes
West: Madrid		This: Jarama necks
Southwest: Madrid	South: Madrid	Sureste: Madrid

Climate

Average climatic parameters of municipality of Alcobendas (Reference period: 1971-2000)
Month	Ene.	Feb.	Mar.	Open up.	May.	Jun.	Jul.	Ago.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
Average temperature (°C)	9.0	11.2	15.8	17.5	21.6	27.3	32.1	31.7	27.0	19.9	14.0	10.4	19.9
Average temperature (°C)	4.9	6.5	9.7	11.5	15.3	20.4	24.3	24.0	19.9	14.0	8.9	6.1	13.9
Temp. medium (°C)	-0.5	1.2	3.6	5.5	9.1	13.4	16.5	16.3	12.9	8.3	3.9	1.8	7.8
Total precipitation (mm)	39	37	23	45	49	30	13	12	28	42	54	56	432
Source: State Meteorology Agency

History

In the middle of the XIX century, the place had a registered population of 1052 inhabitants. The town is described in the first volume of the Geographical-statistical-historical dictionary of Spain and its overseas possessions by Pascual Madoz as follows:

ALCOBENDAS: v. con ayunt. en la prov., aud. terr. y c. g. de Madrid (3 1/2 leg. N. NE.), part. jud. de Colmenar Viejo (4), dióc. de Toledo (15): sit. on the real road of France to a leg. of the Jarama r. and in a sandy and unfertile plain; they dominate the winds of the N.: it has good spring and a stream that is at the S., and enjoys a healthy temper naturally, though its vec., effect of its great poverty and disobey, suffer intermittent warming. Form the hull of the pobl. over 300 houses, 30 or 40 of them very regular with capitular, jail, butchery, first-letter school, pósito and hospital; 2 igl, parr., one inside the pobl. with parish priest and a beneficiary named the King, and another in the desp. called Fuentidueña with a lieutenant. The Term. of this jurisd. it is limited to the radius of their channels, having the vecs. their possessions in S. Sebastian de los Reyes, Fuente el Fresno and Barajas, with some short portions in Hortaleza and Fuencarral for a number of 4,000 fan. 1200 of vineyards and 20 of orchards, without irrigation water, with a low carrascal mountain in Fuencarral that benefit for carbon: prod.: wheat, centennial, barley, oats, chickpeas, peas, algarrobas and wine, especially the celebrated flytel, doing the labors and cartages with cattle and mular; breed some lanar cattle and in times work books, are dedicated to the tragineo for the Court, in which transit there are 2 streams, one of them with the Chacantarilla and the new portazgo pobl.: 271 vec.: 1,052 alm.: cap. prod. 10,796,767 rs.; imp.: 437,167: contr.: according to the general calculation of the prov. 11 p00.

(Madoz, 1845, p. 450)

Demographics

The municipality, which has an area of 45.27 km², has 113,055 inhabitants and a density of 2,497 inhabitants/km² according to the municipal register for 2015 of the INE.

Graphic of demographic evolution of Alcobendas between 1842 and 2015

Rule population (1842-1897, except 1857 and 1860, which is a de facto population) according to population censuses of the nineteenth century.Population of Law (1900-1991) or resident population (2001) according to population censuses of the INE. Population according to the 2011 and 2015 municipal standards of the INE.

History

Of uncertain origin, Alcobendas has its first documented date in the year 1208 when the limits between Madrid and Segovia were established by King Alfonso VIII of Castile. It was a village in the suburb of Madrid until 1369, when Enrique II ceded it to Pedro González de Mendoza as a prize for his support in the war against his brother Pedro I. His grandson Iñigo López de Mendoza, the Marquis of Santillana, exchanged with the count of Gelves, Gonzalo de Guzmán, his rights over Alcobendas with those of the town of Torija (Guadalajara) in the year 1453 to, in turn, do the same in 1454 with Diego Romero, mayor of Toledo, in exchange of the Valladolid town of Valdenebro. In 1457, after bartering with the Toledo town of Carmena, the manor appeared in the possession of Diego Arias Dávila, Castilla's chief accountant, to whose descendants, the Counts of Puñonrostro, Alcobendas would belong until 1811, when the manors disappeared. The current coat of arms of Alcobendas, like that of San Agustín de Guadalix, is precisely that of that county.

The jurisdiction of the lords of Alcobendas did not extend beyond the perimeter of the town's hamlet, "up to the leaks of their last houses", the entire surrounding countryside where the Alcobendeño worked belonging to that of Madrid, in such a way that he had to bear a double tax burden, complaining to his lord and to the town of Madrid. This tax overload, accompanied by a tyrannical attitude on the part of his lord Juan Arias Dávila, motivated several Alcobendenses to settle on a nearby hill in the jurisdiction of Madrid and request a neighborhood from his council. Thus, the neighboring San Sebastián de los Reyes was born in the year 1492 under the protection of a well-designed anti-seigneurial policy of the council of Madrid and the Catholic Monarchs in their attempt to reduce the strength of the nobility. Here began the animosities between the inhabitants of one town and the other that would sow, for centuries, of lawsuits and lawsuits in the judicial authorities.

In the 17th century Alcobendas experienced two extraordinary and famous miracles certified by the ecclesiastical hierarchies: the sweating of Christ of the column in 1646, and that of the multiplication of wine from a small jar in 1677. Already in the XIX century it would suffer the scourge of the French invader from 1808 until his liberation by El Empecinado. In 1822 the Cortes approved the limits of the municipal term that we know today, and in 1823, from Alcobendas, the Duke of Angoulême launched his proclamation overthrowing the liberal regime born from the coup of General Riego. In the XX century the civil war and its post-war years were suffered by Alcobendas as in many other places, and in the middle of the century An immigration phenomenon will begin that will make the town go from having 1,985 inhabitants in 1940 to 3,748 in 1960, and to a census of 25,074 in 1970.

Administration and politics

Municipal government

On June 15, 2019, the municipal corporation was constituted, and the socialist Rafael Sánchez Acera was elected as the new mayor. The result of the vote was by an absolute majority of 14 votes in favour: 9 from PSOE and 5 from Ciudadanos. On October 7, 2021, in compliance with the agreement signed by Ciudadanos and PSOE two years earlier, Aitor Retolaza (Ciudadanos) was sworn in as the new mayor with the vote of the Podemos councilor.

The City of Alcobendas, opened in 1999

Economy

This town has experienced a major economic boom since the mid-20th century. In this town there are important shopping centers such as La Vega (Alcampo among others), Carrefour, Río-Norte (Decathlon, Toys'R'Us, Décimas,...), Diversia Leisure Center (Kinépolis Cinema between others), Moraleja Green (Sánchez Romero Supermarkets and Cinesa La Moraleja among others). It has two industrial estates of great importance, connected to the A-1 (Madrid-Burgos), the Madrid-Colmenar highway, La Granja station (L-10 Metro) and bus lines. It also has two business parks: La Moraleja and Arroyo de la Vega, where important companies have established their headquarters, especially those related to new technologies.

Monuments and places of interest

Centro de Arte Alcobendas

Centro de Arte Alcobendas

With an avant-garde design, it opened its doors in 2010. It includes spaces for a library, audio library, auditorium and exhibition halls.

Church of Saint Peter the Apostle

Church of Saint Peter the Apostle

Located on Calle de la Iglesia, in the center of the town. The series Oh, Lord, Lord!, on Antena 3, was recorded in the town. Because the main character is a priest, played by Andrés Pajares, many of its scenes were shot in the church.

The Gibaja House

Located on Calle de la Constitución, it is one hundred meters from the Plaza del Pueblo. Building from the beginning of the XX century, dedicated, in addition to housing, to the uses of agricultural and livestock work characteristic of the population.

Parque de Catalunya

A fairly large park, located on Calle del Marqués de la Valdavia, next to the metro of the same name. In this park you can find: a fenced area for children, a fountain with a peculiar shape, several individual benches that share a place with those for two people, a river with its small waterfalls (all artificial), some tables, a gazebo not very large, a wide square and an atmosphere that tries to evoke Gaudí's Park Güell in Barcelona.

Parque de Andalucía

Located on Calle del Pintor Murillo. The largest park in this town, where the central lake with a large fountain stands out.

Jardin de la Vega

In this garden is the so-called Campana de la Paz and several parks for the little ones along with rest areas among the trees.

Olympic Avenue

In this avenue is the Pedro Ferrándiz Foundation, FIBA Hall of Fame, and flags of all the countries that have hosted the Olympic Games. In the same foundation we can find the headquarters of the 2014 basketball world cup that will be held in Spain. Alcobendas would have been the seventh venue for the 2014 Basketball World Cup. This was announced by José Luis Sáez, president of the Spanish Basketball Federation.

The Menina

Glorieta de La Menina

One of the last monuments in Alcobendas but the most popular today. It is about seven meters high. Located at the beginning of Paseo de la Chopera, in one of the main entrances to the town, a menina statue several meters high stands on a large landscaped roundabout. Its author is the sculptor Manolo Valdés.

Services

Despite being very far from the urban area of the city, the municipality has funeral services in the Parque Cementerio de la Paz Funeral Home. It is located in the Cordel de la Tapia Viñuelas but the site is accessed through Madrid through the Colmenar Viejo M-607 road.

Education

Primary, Secondary and University Education

In Alcobendas, there are 26 nursery schools (5 public and 21 private), 14 public schools for infant and primary education, 5 secondary education institutes, 14 private schools (with and without concert), the Popular University " Miguel Delibes", 7 foreign centers (Liceo Francés de Madrid) and one of the campuses of the European University of Madrid.

Transportation

Valdelasfuentes Station, one of the two nearby Alcobendas

The main access road to Alcobendas is the A-1, although it is also connected to the M-40 ring road, the R-2 toll road, the M-12 road and the Alcobendas-Barajas road. The latter connect with the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport.

It should also be noted that the M-616 highway (El Goloso-Alcobendas) connects the municipality with Cantoblanco, where the main campus of the Autonomous University of Madrid and the secondary campus of the Comillas Pontifical University are located.

The town has a wide network of urban and interurban buses that connect it with Madrid (Plaza de Castilla, Chamartín, Pinar de Chamartín and Canillejas), Tres Cantos, Algete and other municipalities in the north of the Community of Madrid:

Interurban buses

Metro

• since 26 April 2007

Line	Tour	Stations
	Hospital Infanta Sofia - Tres Olivos - Puerta del Sur	- The Farm - The Moraleja - Marquis de la Valdavia - Manuel de Falla

Near

Line	Tour	Stations
	Parla - Alcobendas-S.S. Reyes	- Valdelasfuentes - Alcobendas-S.S. Reyes

Culture

Teatro Auditorio City of Alcobendas, opened in 1995

Centro Cultural Pablo Iglesias

Since 2014, the headquarters of the National Museum of Science and Technology (MUNCYT) in Alcobendas. The building was known as CosmoCaixa between 2007 and 2013; before 2007 it was the Acciona Museum of Science

Sports

Alcobendas has two sports centers: the José Caballero Sports Center and the Valdelasfuentes Sports City. Both have a wide variety of facilities. Alcobendas has been the only municipality in Madrid awarded, on two occasions, with the National Sports Award.

The Alcobendas Sports Foundation is made up of 5 participating clubs: Alcobendas Basketball Club, Alcobendas Handball Club, Alcobendas Patín Club, Alcobendas Volleyball Club, and Alcobendas Rugby Club; and 13 other associated clubs: Alcobendas Table Tennis, Club Corredores, Han Kuk, Club Deportivo Elementa Alcobendas Futsal, Club Recreativo Esgrima Alcobendas, Escuela de Taekwondo Jesús Tortosa, Sporting 6 de Diciembre, Stecchino Mountain Bike, Alcobendas Levitt CF, Club de Tenis City of Alcobendas, Cheerxport Alcobendas, Alcobendas Soccer Club School, and Royal Oaks Knights.

The information office for the 2014 Basketball World Cup was in Alcobendas.

In October 2021 it was included as a contributing city in the Spanish Basketball Hall of Fame in the class of 2019.

Youth Activities

IMAGINA - Centro Joven, is a service for youth, childhood and adolescence offered by the Alcobendas City Council, it provides services of interest to young people registered in this municipality. It includes a wide variety of services such as employment and housing, training, health and leisure at reduced prices.

It is located at C/ Ruperto Chapí, 18. In addition, they have a web page available with daily updates, as well as the social networks Facebook and Twitter from where they support their communication, dissemination and knowledge management.

Popular festivals

• 24 January: Virgin of Peace (father of the people)
• 15 May: San Isidro (patrón de la ciudad de Madrid)

Twinned cities

• Épinay-sur-Seine (France, 1986)

Notable people