The historical cartography of the National Geographical Institute of Spain as a source to study urban settlements: study case of Colmenar Viejo (Madrid)

Abstract

This paper analyses the documentary sources of the National Geographical Institute of Spain that can be used to study the urban growth experienced by a town situated in the Metropolitan Area of Madrid, i.e., Colmenar Viejo, focusing specifically on the cartography used to examine the beginning of the metropolitan process: Tomás López’s Geographic Atlas of Spain (18th century), the Cadastral Topography of Spain (1861-1870), the previous works of the Topographic Map of Spain on scale 1:50,000 (1870-1945), and the Mapa Nacional Topográfico Parcelario / Topographic Map of Spain which shows land parcels (1949- 1952). The main conclusion drawn is that the great amount of information, the details of the scale and the thoroughness with which the Cadastral Topography of Spain of the mid 19th Century was carried out was not achieved again for urban areas until a century later.

Key words: cartography, topography, scale, cadastre, urban settlement.