The best walks and hikes around Titulcia

Several pleasant breakfast bars, a good option for bikers or cyclists, and the old iron bridge over the Jarama is beautiful...

Aljezar comes from the Arabic word "al jez", which means gypsum hill, gypsum quarry or territory where gypsum mineral is abundant. In botany, the complex and select ecosystem concentrated in the gypsum hills or gypsum cliffs that appear associated with the slopes and moors of the Miocene near the river plains is known as gypsum scrub or aljezar. The slopes of the Jarama are lands with little evolved soils, little capacity to retain water and steep slopes exposed to erosion. The landscapes of the Regional Park of the Southeast are characterized by showing a rich and varied geological diversity in short distances, converting the environment of the protected area into a suggestive selection of dynamic and changing natural scenarios.

The vegetation that adorns the steep earthy slopes of the Jarama valley is an exhibition of ingenious botanical adaptations to survive in the aljezares characteristic of the vegas of the southeast of Madrid. The esparto grass plants form large clumps of long, smooth leaves with a very dense and closed stem that conserves moisture inside. The austere jabuna has a woody appearance, the stems are very thin and do not exhibit striking colours that require a high consumption of energy, except during the flowering period. Another common plant in the cuts is the ontina or artemisia, used in popular medicine as an anti-diabetic, vermifuge and tonic, it develops thorns and discreet colours to avoid excessive transpiration. One of the most striking plants is the mignonette, which produces long and twisted stems. There are also thymes, rosemary scales and Syrian rue, which defend themselves from the xerophilous environment with a reduced leaf surface and scaly leaves.

The Romans were at a strategic crossroads. The main axis of the old pastoral and commercial routes in the southeast of Madrid was the Cordel de la Galiana, a route designed centuries ago by the Romans to connect the pastures of the plateaus of the Central System with the Mediterranean, probably used by Hannibal to return to Cartagena after the Salamanca campaign in 217 BC. The terraced distribution of the streets on the slope of a hill, formerly known as Cerro de Venus and currently Cerrón, has the appearance of an ancient medieval village, there are even remains in the town of a fortress linked to the Templars. The only remains of the old town of Titulcia that are preserved are part of the parish church and several balconied facades in the Plaza Mayor, the rest were destroyed in the Civil War. The current whitewashed and shiny houses were rebuilt in later years and offer a fairly uniform and modern appearance. In the 19th century the place was called Bayona de Tajuña, derived from the Basque word ibay ona (place next to a good river), from the times of repopulation by people from the north, but it was changed to Titulcia by royal decree of Ferdinand VII, in 1815, who spent the summer in Aranjuez and did not want to hear the name of the city where he had been imprisoned for six years, the French Bayonne.

The best times to observe birds are early in the morning, before the birds that sleep in the lagoon go out in search of food, and at dusk, when the birds that spend the day fluttering around the fields and plains of the Tajuña return to spend the night. With luck, suitable equipment, patience and knowledge of the habits of birds, you can see coots, grebes, white-rumped grebes, moorhens, grey herons, mallards, red-crested pochard and various reptiles such as the ocellated lizard and the common grass snake, among many others. In summer, it is easy to observe the bee-eater, little bittern, sand martin, reed warbler, great reed warbler and purple heron in the area around the lagoon and the surrounding steppe mountains.

Spectacular panorama that should not be missed even if we are in a hurry. Here you have to stop and look!

From the Titulcia cliffs, if you look up towards San Martín de la Vega, you can see spectacular views of the Jarama riverbed.

At this point on the path of La Blanca, at the height of the San Juan lagoons, there is a viewpoint frequented by bird lovers. It is a perfect point to see the fauna that inhabits this seasonal wetland.