Campo Real: the olive town east of Madrid

Famous throughout central Spain for its table olives, Campo Real is a country town of around 7,000 people on the high plateau south-east of Madrid. For generations its name has been a byword for a particular way of curing olives, and a jar of them is the classic souvenir of a visit.

Famous olives

The Campo Real olive owes its distinctive taste to a natural, artisanal dressing of garlic, fennel, oregano and thyme, with each producer guarding its own blend. These olives account for the great majority of the table-olive production of the Madrid region, alongside local olive oil and sheep's cheese, and the town also keeps a small pottery museum.

The hilltop church

Recorded in the Middle Ages as Aldea del Campo and given its present name by King Philip II in 1580, the town is built around a low hill crowned by the church of Santa Maria del Castillo. This Renaissance and Herreran building, which preserves a Gothic section saved from a 15th-century fire, commands wide views that on a clear day reach as far as Madrid.

Getting there

Campo Real sits about 35 kilometres east of central Madrid, close to Arganda del Rey, with bus links to the capital.