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.
Why people fall for Riofrío
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
Who Riofrío is for — and who it isn't
Not our opinion: we ran the same scoring engine behind the quiz for six settler profiles across all 8,132 municipalities and read off where Riofrío lands.
Probably not for
- Budget-first coastal settlers 10th percentile of 8,132 towns weakest factor: on/near the sea
- Remote-working couples 11th percentile of 8,132 towns weakest factor: on/near the sea
- Families with school-age kids 14th percentile of 8,132 towns weakest factor: on/near the sea
- Heat-averse settlers 18th percentile of 8,132 towns weakest factor: on/near the sea
The numbers
The decision data — each figure placed among all Spanish municipalities that report it ("top 10%" always means good, also where lower is better). Regional overlays and estimates are labelled, and where there's no local reading we say so plainly.
Climate
- Winter average temp
- 4.8°C bottom 15% of 8,131 towns 3°C below the Spanish average (7.8°C)
- Summer high (Jul–Aug)
- 28.7°C top 26% of 8,131 towns 1.5°C below the Spanish average (30.2°C)
- Rainy days a year
- 66 days bottom 44% of 8,088 towns 4% less than the Spanish average (69 days)
- Sunshine
- 7.3 h/day top 46% of 3,829 towns about the Spanish average (7.2 h/day)
- Summer water stress (WEI+) regional estimate
- 60 bottom 41% of 8,033 towns 3 above the Spanish average (56)
Cost & economy
- Home price
- no local data
- Net income per person
- €15,842 top 30% of 8,059 towns 9% more than the Spanish average (€14,495)
- Income growth ’18–’23
- 25.4% bottom 46% of 6,605 towns
Schools
- Schools in town
- 0 bottom 46% of 7,042 towns
- Nearest international school
- 14 km top 12% of 8,132 towns
- PISA maths (region) regional estimate
- 499 #1 of 17 regions, +20 vs national 18 above the Spanish average (481)
Healthcare
- Drive to a hospital
- 25 min top 32% of 8,132 towns
- Nearest health centre
- 13.1 km bottom 28% of 7,025 towns
- Surgical wait (region) regional estimate
- 87 days #5 of 17 regions, −16 days vs national 19% less than the Spanish average (108 days)
Getting around
- Drive to nearest airport
- 98 min bottom 27% of 8,132 towns
- Fibre-to-home coverage
- 0% bottom 7% of 8,132 towns 79% below the Spanish average (79%)
- 100 Mbps+ coverage
- 0% bottom 6% of 8,132 towns 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: SpainScore town dataset, derived from INE, AEMET, Mitma and the Catastro. Percentile chips count only the municipalities that report the figure — the "of n" says how many. Region-ranked figures (PISA, surgical waits) compare Spain's 17 comunidades autónomas. A blank means no municipal-level figure is published — not a zero.
The year, month by month
AEMET 30-year climate normals — what a January or an August actually feels like, not the annual average.
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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