Heritage and Landscape of the Moncloa Agri-Food Corridor

The Moncloa Agri-Food Corridor is the westernmost part of Madrid’s University City (“Ciudad Universitaria”). An area of meadow on the bank of the river Manzanares, it has been used as an educational site for Agricultural Engineering students since the mid-19th century. Moreover, it has also housed the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Complutense University of Madrid since the 1960s.

The Corridor is crossed from north to south by the historic “Senda del Rey” path that once connected Madrid’s Royal Palace with the royal estate at El Pardo. For this reason, the area – which was originally known as Pago de Migas Calientes – has been home to gardens and mansion houses for more than three hundred years, passed down through generations of nobility and royalty until the whole area was finally turned into an education and research site.

The purpose of the report on the built heritage of the Moncloa Agri-Food Corridor is to put forward proposals and highlight both the area’s potential and weaknesses in order to draw up a future Master Plan. The study was divided into three sections: 1. Parameters relating to the landscape’s historical processes; 2. Parameters relating to the operational structure of the campus; 3. Environmental parameters that describe the current situation. All the buildings and open spaces in the area have also been identified and catalogued.

The report concludes by suggesting a framework for the conservation of cultural and scientific heritage and by establishing criteria for intervening in and the integrated management of the Moncloa Agri-Food Corridor.