Ávila · Castilla Y Leon
Riofrío
A modest, unfinished 18th-century royal hunting palace set in a deer-roamed holm-oak forest, built for a widowed queen who barely lived to use it.
What Riofrío is like
Portrait drawn from the Michelin Green Guide & The Rough Guide.
At the foot of the mountain La Mujer Muerta, in the last foothills of the Sierra de Guadarrama.
Worth the trip
- The Palace of Riofrío, begun in 1752, built around a Neoclassical central courtyard
- A deer park surrounding the palace, with deer roaming freely
- A hunting museum inside, with animal-themed art from cave engravings to Oudry still lifes
A little history
Built from 1752 by Elisabeth Farnese to rival the Palace of La Granja after her husband Philip V's death; barely occupied until the 19th century, when Alfonso XII moved in to mourn his young queen Mercedes.
Who it suits: Royal-history and palace visitors
The numbers
The decision data — each figure against the Spanish average. Regional overlays and estimates are labelled, and where there's no local reading we say so plainly.
Climate
- Winter average temp
- 4.8°C 3°C below the Spanish average (7.8°C)
- Summer high (Jul–Aug)
- 28.7°C 1.5°C below the Spanish average (30.2°C)
- Rainy days a year
- 66 days 4% less than the Spanish average (69 days)
- Sunshine
- 7.3 h/day about the Spanish average (7.2 h/day)
- Summer water stress (WEI+) regional estimate
- 60 3 above the Spanish average (56)
Cost & economy
- Home price
- no local data
- Net income per person
- €15,842 9% more than the Spanish average (€14,495)
- Income growth ’18–’23
- 25.4%
Safety
- Recorded crime regional estimate
- 42.2 per 1,000 4% less than the Spanish average (44 per 1,000)
Schools
- Schools in town
- 0
- Nearest international school
- 14 km
- PISA maths (region) regional estimate
- 499 18 above the Spanish average (481)
Healthcare
- Drive to a hospital
- 25 min
- Nearest health centre
- 13.1 km
- Surgical wait (region) regional estimate
- 87 days 19% less than the Spanish average (108 days)
Getting around
- Drive to nearest airport
- 98 min
- Fibre-to-home coverage
- 0% 79% below the Spanish average (79%)
- 100 Mbps+ coverage
- 0% 83% below the Spanish average (83%)
Who lives here
- Population
- 191
- Born in Spain
- 97.4% 8.6% above the Spanish average (88.8%)
- Born elsewhere in EU/UK
- 0.5% 3.3% below the Spanish average (3.8%)
- U.S.-born residents
- 0 per 1,000
Numbers: SettleSpain town dataset, derived from INE, AEMET, Mitma, Ministerio del Interior and the Catastro. National average = the unweighted mean across all 8,132 Spanish municipalities with data. A blank means no municipal-level figure is published — not a zero.
How does Riofrío fit you?
These are the town's numbers. Whether it's your town depends on what you're optimising for — winter sun or mild summers, a city or a village, short medical waits, an easy flight home. The 3-minute quiz scores Riofrío against every one of Spain's 8,132 municipalities on your priorities. It sits about 25 min from Ávila, if that's your anchor.
Take the quiz — rank Riofrío for you →Nearby towns
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