Less than an hour’s drive from the capital, this irregular square with its green and wood tones, featuring 234 balconies facing the center, embodies centuries of history, Castilian cuisine, and that lively village atmosphere that many Madrileños seek when they need to escape the city’s concrete jungle for a day.
In 2008, the Community of Madrid organized a public vote to select the Seven Wonders of the region, and Chinchón’s Plaza Mayor made the list alongside giants such as the Monastery of El Escorial and the Prado Museum. Since then, it has been known as Madrid’s “fourth wonder,” an unofficial but widely used title that aptly captures the affection with which this porticoed square is regarded.
It is a square of medieval origin, fully enclosed in the 17th century, and considered one of the most beautiful main squares in the world, with its three-story houses, whitewashed facades, and wooden galleries that jut out over the void.
Balconies, cinema, and a life straight out of a movie
Chinchón’s balconies are not only its most iconic image; they have also served as a privileged setting for thousands of stories, both real and fictional. The square has captivated directors like Orson Welles and has been used as a set for numerous films, commercials, and TV series, taking advantage of its unspoiled aesthetics and its chameleon-like ability to transform into a bullring, an open-air theater, or a historical stage.
Chinchón is also synonymous with classic Castilian cuisine: lamb and suckling pig roasted in a wood-fired oven, grilled red meats, garlic soups, Chinchón-style beans, blood sausages, and village chorizos, as well as hearty stews that taste like winter even if you eat them in spring. Many of the restaurants on the Plaza Mayor, some with decades of history, feature indoor dining rooms, century-old wine cellars where you can taste wines, and terraces both at the edge of the square and on the wooden balconies.
Located less than an hour’s drive from Madrid, the town has become a very popular getaway for a day or a weekend. Its historic center was designated a Historic-Artistic Site in 1974, and the plaza serves as the heart from which steep streets, viewpoints, the Castle of the Counts, and the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption—which towers above the town—radiate out. Added to all this is its famous anise liqueur—available in sweet, dry, and special dry varieties—whose production is part of the local identity and completes the gastronomic experience.