| Pozuelo de Alarcon | |||
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| Pozuelo de Alarcón shown within Madrid | |||
| Coordinates: | |||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 43.2 km2 (16.7 sq mi) | ||
| Highest elevation | 690 m (2,264 ft) | ||
| Postcode | 28223 and 28224 | ||
| Website | http://www.pozuelodealarcon.es | ||
Pozuelo de Alarcón is a suburb of over 85,000 inhabitants near the city of Madrid, capital of Spain. It is surrounded by large Mediterranean pine-tree forests: la Casa de Campo, el Monte del Pardo and el Monte del Pilar. It is situated ten kilometres west (and perhaps slightly north) of the Moncloa District of Madrid.
Temperatures are cooler than Madrid's all year round due to its proximity to Madrid's Sierra de Guadarrama Mountains, about 30 kilometres northwest of Pozuelo.
Pozuelo has become a low-density residential area during recent decades as new residential developments have quickly spread over formerly agricultural lands. New elements of transport infrastructure pass through the municipality. Most notable of these are: the M-40, the second, counting outwards, of Madrid's ring motorways; and the new (summer 2007) 'Metro Ligero' (= light rail) line ML2 of the madrid metro system, which connects Pozuelo with the Aluche district in the city of Madrid. Pozuelo is also served by two stations, 'Pozuelo' and 'El Barrial-Centro Comercial Pozuelo' of the Madrid area local train system, the 'Cercanias'. Important road access is also provided by the A6 and the M503.
According to official statistics,[1] Pozuelo's average income level ranks highest, by a notable margin, amongst the municipalities of the Region of Madrid. The standard of living in most of its neighbourhoods is high, although some old town-centre areas, where a growing economic immigrant population has moved in, are excluded from such wealth.
Pozuelo has a number of urban parks, some of them elongated and serving to separate different areas of the town. The most attractive area from an urban planning point of view is the Avenida de Europa, an urban development designed around a wide boulevard.
The Municipal Council has been ruled by political conservatives since the first democratic elections of the modern Spanish democracy took place. The current mayor, Gonzalo Aguado Aguirre, was elected in the 2009 elections. Among notable people that live there are Real Madrid player Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Sainz, a Spanish World Rally Champion.[2] Sainz was also the first person to be made an honorary citizen of the town in 2010.[3]
The local festivities, the "Fiestas Patronales", take place in July and in the beginning of September. Pozuelo also has one of the highest average per capita incomes in the Community of Madrid. Pozuelo is twinned with the municipalities of Issy-les-Moulineaux in France and Poznań in Poland.
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