Miraflores de la Sierra Sierra de Guadarrama © Copyright “name”, 2010. All Rights Reserved Created by Stephen Fernandez Osmunda Consulting    Made with Xara Web Designer Sierra de Guadarrama In and around the mountains of Madrid Miraflores de la Sierra is a large village situated in the northern part of the Sierra de Guadarrama.  It is very popular at the weekends for visitors from Madrid and a lot of them have summer homes there.  It is a town of about five and a half thousand Although that number jumps to about twenty five thousand in the summer when all the people come up from Madrid. Because of its popularity it has a large number of Hotels, Bars and Restaurants. Historically the town was originally called Porquerizas (because of the large amount of pig farming).  The story goes that in 1627 Elisabeth of Bourbon (wife of Philip lV) exclaimed “mira flores”  (look flowers) on a walking trip in the area. and it has been called Miraflores ever since.  During the month of May particullary the area around Miraflores is awash with spectacular wild flowers Nestling in the mountains Miraflores stands at an altitude of 1.15 Metres.  The two main mountains that look down on Miraflores are La Najara at about 2120m high and La Perdiguera at 1766m.  Miraflores is located at the eastern end of the Cuerda Larga ridge which runsd from Puerto de Navecerrada.  The mountain passes of La Morcuera and Canencia are reach via Miraflores making it an ideal base for exploring the central- eastern part of the range.  For those walkers looking for more low level walks Miraflores also offers a wide variety of options. The main fiesta in Miraflores is the 15 of August in honour of the “Virgen de la Asunción” the patron saint.  The fiestas typically last 5 days.  Two other smaller fiestas celebrated here are San Blas on the 3rd of February and San Isidro on the 15th of May.