The Madrid version of Belchite or the certainty that the mere act of turning onto the N-320 will turn your car into a Delorean. It is difficult to choose a single literary figure that synthesizes the approach to Patones de Arriba, but any of them would refer to a question: time stopped.
One cannot speak of Patones de Arriba in the second decade of the 2000s in terms of unveiling a secret. This town of the Sierra Norte de Madrid was for many years a place where time did not even pass by. The situation changed when it was declared Asset of Cultural Interest and it automatically became what it already was and what this headline anticipates: the most beautiful town in Madrid.
Black architecture
The visit to Patones has a function that goes beyond visual delight. The beauty of Patones is not Patones -yes it is Patones-, but the enclave in which it is framed. The hiking trails how well has collected Wikiloc or the certainty that you are in one of the few towns in Madrid that exemplify black architecture.
The black architecture, which is typical of Guadalajara and which in Madrid is only present in half a dozen villages, is defined by the material with which the houses that make up its villages are built: slate. Thus, having little or nothing to do with goy’s black paint a, black architecture was born or established as a result of the need to adapt to the extreme climatic conditions of winter.
The result of the symbiosis between the slate and the cobblestone floor gives rise to a common definition on the internet and also to the first description made by any visitor to Patones de Arriba. It is a fairytale town.
The history of Patones
If there is a Patones de Arriba it is because there is its homonym below and the history of the creation of the second Patones is dated in the Civil War, when the neighbors established their dwelling a few kilometers below.
The itinerant history of the village almost rhymes with the certainties of the creation of the village, when the Patón shepherd brothers (Asenjo, Juan and Pero) created a farmhouse in the 16th century. We have to go several decades later until we reach a text that the historian Antonio Ponz left written in 1781 in which he said that the town was governed by kings (and not by mayors) until the mid-1700s.
In the text, Ponz indicates that the Patones, as the neighbors were known, chose “among them the person of most probity to govern them and decide their disputes, of whose family he was the successor (…) calling his head King of the Patones”.
How to get to Patones de Arriba
Madrid and Patones are separated by barely 60 kilometers, but there are two things to know regarding the suitability of your visit. Both are related to the fact that this article does not uncover any unknown Arcadia. From here: Sunday after Sunday Patones is full of cars and there are many cases of people who arrive and have to turn around. In this situation, two pieces of advice: go during the week or get up very early.
It takes about an hour by car and it is not possible to drive into the village – only half a thousand inhabitants are allowed to park inside. Some people recommend parking in the parking lot of Patones de Abajo and from there walk up the ecological path of the ravine.
Regarding buses: there are up to three lines that connect the city of Madrid with Patones. All of them are picked up at the Plaza Castilla interchange. And they are as follows: 197, 197 A and 913.