Somosierra is a mountain pass in the

Sierra de Guadarrama The Sierra de Guadarrama (Guadarrama Mountains) is a mountain range forming the main eastern section of the Sistema Central, the system of mountain ranges along the centre of the Iberian Peninsula. It is located between the systems Sierra de G ...

north of

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...

in Spain. It connects the north of the

Community of Madrid The Community of Madrid (; es, Comunidad de Madrid ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities of Spain. It is located in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, and of the Central Plateau (''Meseta Central''). Its capital and largest mun ...

with the east of the province of

Segovia Segovia ( , , ) is a city in the autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Segovia. Segovia is in the Inner Plateau ('' Meseta central''), near the northern slopes o ...

. Just south of the pass is the municipality of

Somosierra Somosierra is a municipality in the Community of Madrid, Spain, located at 83 km north of Madrid, in the mountain pass with the same name, at an elevation of 1433 metres above sea level, being the northernmost town of Community of Madri ...

with a population of 77. Puerto de Somosierra

It has an altitude of and is crossed by the

A-1 A1, A-1, A01 or A.1. may refer to: Education * A1, the Basic Language Certificate of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages * Language A1, the former name for "Language A: literature", one of the IB Group 1 subjects * A1, a ...

( E5) road through , a short twin-bore tunnel named in honour of a civil engineer who worked on the Spanish motorway network. There is also a rail tunnel.

History

The road was originally a track opened up by Napoleon to provide a direct route to Madrid. In 1808 this led to the

Battle of Somosierra The Battle of Somosierra took place on 30 November 1808, during the Peninsular War, when a combined Franco-Spanish-Polish force under the direct command of Napoleon Bonaparte forced a passage through a Spanish Divison stationed at the Sierra ...

between French-Polish and Spanish forces. In 1936, at the beginning of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...

, the

Battle of Somosierra (1936) The Battle of Guadarrama ( es, Batalla de Guadarrama, also known as ''Batalla de Somosierra'') was the first battle in the Spanish Civil War involving troops loyal to the Second Spanish Republic in the Guadarrama Range. The battle took place in t ...

took place in the heights of the pass between

Carlist Carlism ( eu, Karlismo; ca, Carlisme; ; ) is a Traditionalist and Legitimist political movement in Spain aimed at establishing an alternative branch of the Bourbon dynasty – one descended from Don Carlos, Count of Molina (1788–1855) – o ...

and

Falangist Falangism ( es, falangismo) was the political ideology of two political parties in Spain that were known as the Falange, namely first the Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (FE de las JONS) and afterwards the Fal ...

units and

Spanish Republican Army The Spanish Republican Army ( es, Ejército de la República Española) was the main branch of the Armed Forces of the Second Spanish Republic between 1931 and 1939. It became known as People's Army of the Republic (''Ejército Popular de la Rep ...

troops.Análisis Cronológico de la Guerra Civil Española
/ref>

References

External links

Cerro Pelado y Paredes de Buitrago
Mountain passes of Spain Landforms of the Community of Madrid Mountain passes of the Sistema Central {{Segovia-geo-stub