Madrid is the geographical centre of mainland Spain. At 655 metres (2,150ft) above sea level, it is the highest capital in Europe, with a population of 3.3 million. Situated on Spain’s central plateau and surrounded by mountains, it has not only been climatically sheltered from maritime influences, but culturally and socially insulated as well.
In the 10th century the future capital of Spain was a Moorish fortress named Majerit, which, a century later, was captured by Alfonso VI, King of Castile. In 1561, during Spain’s Golden Age of empire, Philip II moved his residence here from nearby Toledo. He never explained the reasons why – other cities were then much more important – but, except for the brief period between 1601 and 1607 when Philip III moved to Valladolid, it has remained the capital ever since. In 1808, the French invaded Spain and installed Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother, on the Spanish throne. The city rose in rebellion. In his paintings Dos de Mayo, 1808 and Tres de Mayo, 1808, in the Prado Museum, Goya chronicles the gruesome street battles and reprisals that cost more than 1,000 lives. The resulting Peninsular War, known in Spain as the War of Independence, brought British troops under the command of the Duke of Wellington to Spain’s side and the conflict dragged on until 1814, when the French were finally defeated.
The city was again besieged in November 1936, three months after General Franco’s Nationalist uprising against the Republican government. Intense fighting took place in the southern suburbs and all around the western edge of Madrid, especially in the university. Nationalist artillerymen took their sights from the recently built hotels on the avenue of the Gran Vía, and the central post office sustained 155 direct hits, but the city did not succumb until 28 March 1939. Franco remained in power until his death in 1975, when the monarchy was restored under King Juan Carlos.
Edificio Metropolis, Madrid.
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Heart of the city
Most of Madrid’s sightseeing attractions are intimately linked with its history as a royal residence and the centre of a vanished empire. The oldest part of the city is the area between the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) and the Paseo del Prado. It embraces the Plaza Mayor, the Puerta del Sol and the districts of La Latina and Lavapiés. The chaotic arrangement of narrow streets and small irregular squares has changed little since the 17th century.
The centre of this area, of Madrid, and in a sense of the whole of Spain, is the Puerta del Sol 1 [map], the site of a city gate that disappeared in the 16th century. Today it is Madrid’s Times Square, where Metro and bus lines, as well as major roads, converge. On New Year’s Eve, revellers gather here to tick off the final seconds of the old year and usher in the new with the tradition of las uvas, the grapes. The idea is to swallow one with each stroke of the midnight clock. The occupation of the square on 15 March 2011 by young indignados (“the angry”) protesting at austerity measures imposed due to the economic crisis helped inspire the worldwide Occupy movement.
Cervantes memorial, Plaza de España.
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In its younger days the Plaza Mayor 2 [map], a square just to the west surrounded by 17th-century townhouses, saw tournaments and bullfights, political gatherings, book burnings, and an occasional hanging or auto da fé. With the passing of time it has become the scene of coin and stamp fairs on a Sunday morning, theatrical productions in summer, and fiesta celebrations. In the centre of the square stands a statue of Philip III.
Not far south of the Plaza Mayor is the gloomy 17th-century former cathedral of San Isidro 3 [map], where the bones of Madrid’s patron saint lie. Keep going in the same direction and you come to the site of the Rastro, Madrid’s animated Sunday flea market. If you’re hoping to find a bargain, arrive before 11am, and watch out for pickpockets.
Madrid’s antique bars
Madrid has a prodigious variety of bars to choose from, and while the trend is towards contemporary and cutting-edge design, of perennial popularity are the city’s old-fashioned tabernas (taverns), dating from the 19th or early 20th centuries. Before the days of television, tabernas provided homes from home for madrileños to congregate and discuss politics, intellectual matters, football or whatever was going on around them.
Around 100 original tabernas survive, mostly in the old part of the city. Some have beautiful tilework outside and dim, atmospheric interiors with old chairs and tables and shining zinc countertops. Classic examples include Taberna de Antonio Sánchez (Calle del Mesón de Paredes 13), Angel Sierra (Plaza de Chueca), La Dolores (Plaza de Jesús), Casa Labra (Calle Tetuán 12) and El Abuelo (Calle Victoria 12). Most tabernas serve food – tapas at least – as well as wines and other drinks, but a few have become renowned restaurants in their own right, notably El Botín (Calle de los Cuchilleros 17, off the Plaza Mayor) and La Bola (Calle Bola 5), both of which specialise in Madrid’s traditional warming winter stew, cocido madrileño.
Recently, new tabernas have been created in the spirit of the real thing, and you may be hard put to tell the difference between the authentically old and the modern re-creation.
In the midst of central Madrid there are also two enclosed convents of nuns, still functioning, their interiors – which can be visited – almost entirely unchanged since they were first established in the 17th century. Heading north from the Plaza Mayor across Calle Mayor and Calle del Arenal you come to the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales 4 [map] (Tue–Sun), a royal convent where many Habsburg princesses and aristocrats became nuns, with an impressive collection of art treasures. Nearby, the Real Monasterio de la Encarnación 5 [map] (Tue–Sun) was founded by the wife of Philip II, and has a renowned reliquary.
Plaza Mayor in spring.
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Across the Plaza del Oriente is the Palacio Real 6 [map] (daily). Built between 1738 and 1764 after the earlier Baroque palace of Philip II had burnt down, it was designed by Italian architects in the ornate Neoclassical style then fashionable in Italy and France. The palace is quite conventional to look at from the outside, but inside it is overwhelming. Sumptuous and elegant, this is one of the most splendid palaces in Europe; it has more than 2,000 rooms, but only some are open to the public. The highlights are the immense great staircase and Hall of Columns with ceiling frescoes by Tiepolo, the lavish apartments of Charles III such as Sala Gasparini, the throne room and the dining room. King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía do not live here, but frequently use the palace for receptions and gala banquets. The inner courtyard has statues of the Roman emperors Trajan, Hadrian, Theodosius and Honorius, who were all born in Spain.
On the south side of the palace is the Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Almudena 7 [map], Madrid’s cathedral, consecrated by Pope John Paul II in 1995, 110 years after it was begun.
Eat
Dining hours in Madrid – as in most of Spain – are particular: lunch is normally around 2pm, dinner from 8.30–9pm, and in the summer heat, or at weekends, hours can be even later. Do not expect any decent Spanish restaurant to serve full meals much before 12.30 at lunchtime, or 8pm in the evening. Tapas bars of course are open through the day, as are bland chain restaurants. After dinner, people think nothing of going out for a drink at around 11pm or midnight.
From the Plaza de España to Cibeles
The focal point of the west end of Madrid is the Plaza de España 8 [map], where larger-than-life statues of Don Quixote and his faithful servant Sancho Panza ride into the sunset. Looming up above the square is the Edificio España, a prestige project built under the Franco regime in the 1950s, combining a skyscraper with neo-Baroque Spanish Golden Age decoration. A short walk from here is the Parque del Oeste, in which stands the 4th-century BC Templo de Debod 9 [map] (Tue–Sun), a gift to Spain from the Egyptian government. Further into the park, the Rosaleda or rose garden is gorgeous when in full bloom in spring, while a Teleférico or cable car (daily) runs from the park across the River Manzanares to Madrid’s largest open space in the former royal hunting estate of the Casa de Campo, with great views en route.
The Plaza de España marks one end of Madrid’s principal street, the Gran Vía ) [map], which has some magnificent buildings along it in an intriguing mix of 20th-century styles, particularly near its junction with the Calle de Alcalá. This in turn leads to the city’s emblematic traffic hub, the Plaza de Cibeles ! [map], at the top of the Paseo del Prado, with a fountain with a statue of the goddess Cybele in a chariot drawn by lions. Dominating the plaza is the extraordinary white mass of the Palacio de Cibeles, which since 2011 contains Madrid’s city hall. Still better known to locals as the Palacio de Comunicaciones or just correos (the post office), it was built in 1904–18 as the central post office, on a scale and in a hotch-potch of styles – Neo-Gothic, Neo-Baroque, Austrian Art Nouveau – that symbolised the ambitions of Spain’s governing elite during one of their boom times. The equally grand main hall inside now contains an imaginative cultural centre, CentroCentro (Tue–Sun), and visitors can also examine the opulent stained glass and soaring columns and go up to the highest tower for a panoramic view.
A short way up the continuation of the Calle de Alcalá is another of Madrid’s landmarks, the Puerta de Alcalá @ [map] , an 18th-century monumental gateway. To the north, the grid-pattern streets make up the wealthy neighbourhood of Salamanca, which contains Madrid’s most fashionable shopping area, especially around Calle Serrano. On its eastern edge is the Plaza de las Ventas, the Hispanic world’s most prestigious bullring.
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The most traditional way to get bullfight tickets is just to go to the taquillas (ticket windows) at the Plaza de las Ventas, but they can now be bought online, through www.las-ventas.com (Spanish-only) or through agencies such as www.ticketstoros.com, which sells tickets for bullrings throughout Spain.
Art treasures
Madrid’s greatest attractions for visitors are its three major museums of art, all within a short stroll of each other. Heading down the Paseo del Prado from Plaza de Cibeles, you soon come to the first great art gallery, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza £ [map] (Tue–Sun) in the Palacio Villahermosa. The collection, amassed by the German Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza, gives a remarkable overview of Western art, from the Renaissance and German 16th-century portraits through Italian Mannerists – Caravaggio’s awe-inspiring Saint Catherine of Alexandria – to Goya, early American painters and 20th-century Expressionists and pop art.
The Palacio Real.
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Across Plaza Cánovas del Castillo is the world’s greatest art museums, the Museo del Prado $ [map] (Tue–Sun), with holdings of more than 6,000 paintings and sculptures, including a very high proportion of masterpieces. The core of the museum is the Spanish royal collection, amassed from the 15th century by monarchs such as Charles V and Philip IV who were enthusiastic collectors and employed the greatest artists of their day – Titian, Rubens, Velázquez and others. If time allows for only a brief visit, it should include Francisco de Goya (1746–1828). His work is represented in its full range and shines at its brilliant best on its home turf, with superb images of a unique vigour and intensity. A first visit should also include the works of Spain’s other celebrated artists, Diego Velázquez (1599–1660) and El Greco (1541–1614), although El Greco is seen to better advantage in his adopted hometown of Toledo. Among the unmissable works of Velázquez are Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour), Las Handeras (The Spinners) and Los Borrachos (The Drunkards).
The Prado has still not entirely finished an expansion programme, the biggest change in its history, consisting of the addition of an all-new modern wing by architect Rafael Moneo (dubbed by locals El Cubo de Moneo, Moneo’s Cube) and the incorporation of the Gothic former church of the Jerónimos, alongside the Cube, and of the Casón del Buen Retiro, a much-restored pavilion of the former Retiro palace. The Cube and the Jerónimos are used as additional space for temporary exhibitions and for showing more of the museum’s non-Spanish paintings (Titian, Veronese, Rubens), while the Casón has given room to expand for the Prado’s illustrious art library. It is also planned for the museum to restore and take over the Salón de Reinos, the finest surviving part of the Retiro palace and the original location of Velázquez’s grand equestrian portraits of the Habsburg royal family, but due to the financial crisis this is unlikely to be completed for some time.
To get to the last of the trio of art galleries, continue down the Paseo del Prado. The Centro de Arte Reina Sofía % [map] (Wed–Mon) is a showcase of modern art. It houses Picasso’s Guernica, a depiction of the obliteration of a Basque town by Nazi war planes during Spain’s civil war. Once the city hospital, the building has been dramatically renovated to house works by 20th-century Spanish masters Dalí and Miró, as well as Picasso. It also has a lively programme of contemporary exhibitions.
For a delightful respite from sightseeing and the summer heat, Madrid’s main park, El Retiro ^ [map], is conveniently located a few streets behind the Prado. The park began life in the 1630s as the gardens of the Palacio del Buen Retiro, a giant palace-complex built for King Philip IV that was mostly destroyed in the Napoleonic Wars. Open to all since 1868, the gardens have many shady areas to explore, including, at the centre, the grand Estanque or boating lake, and three pavilions that host attractive free art exhibits, the Casa de Vacas, Palacio de Velázquez and the glass-walled Palacio de Cristal.
Painted fresco ceiling at El Escorial.
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Paseo de la Castellana
Modern Madrid could be said to start at the Plaza de Colón & [map], north of Plaza de Cibeles. Here the Paseo de Recoletos, a continuation of Paseo del Prado, turns in the Paseo de la Castellana, the immense multi-lane main artery that runs north right up through the newer areas and its main business centres of Madrid to culminate in the stunning Cuatro Torres, four skyscrapers completed in 2007–9, which can be viewed from Chamartín railway station.
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Real Madrid’s home stadium – Estadio Santiago Bernabeu – can be visited by guided tour (daily, but not after five hours before a match; bookings through www.realmadrid.com). The tour includes the pitch, presidential box, dressing rooms and trophy room.
Some of Madrid’s most interesting museums are off the southern sections of the Paseo de la Castellana. Behind the Plaza de Colón is Spain’s national antiquities museum, the Museo Arqueológico Nacional * [map] (Tue–Sun), which recently underwent a major renovation. Its prize exhibits include the Iberian statue of the Dama de Elche (Lady of Elche).
Madrid’s quaintest museum is the Museo Lázaro Galdiano (Wed–Mon), up Calle de Serrano from the Archaeology Museum. An eclectic private collection displayed in the owners’ mansion includes paintings, furniture, enamels, ivories, armour and jewellery.
Just across Paseo de la Castellana from here is the Museo Sorolla (Tue–Sun), former home and studio of Spain’s best-known Impressionist painter, Joaquín Sorolla. A pleasant villa almost engulfed by modern apartment blocks, it is a good spot to escape from the noise and rush of the city and savour Sorolla’s romantic, sun-drenched images.
El Retiro, Madrid’s main park.
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Days out
Two of Madrid’s most popular sights require a day trip from the city, one to the south, one to the north. The royal summer retreat, the Real Palacio de Aranjuez (Tue–Sun; guided tours only), made famous by Rodríguez’s Guitar Concerto, is 45km (27 miles) south of the capital. Stuffed with portraits and porcelain, the palace’s real attraction lies in its setting in 300 hectares (740 acres) of gardens.
San Lorenzo de El Escorial (Tue–Sun) often known simply as El Escorial, 50km (30 miles) northwest of Madrid, is the monstrously grandiose fantasy of Philip II, built between 1563 and 1584. Part palace, part monastery, part church and part pantheon, the king had it built in honour of San Lorenzo, on whose feast day (10 August) in 1557 the Spanish won an important victory over the French at St-Quentin. The Museum of Art houses a very fine collection of Flemish, Italian and Spanish paintings, and the king’s library is magnificent. In a country that has always built its cathedrals and monuments in an overwhelming style, El Escorial remains in a class of its own.