The history of Madrid
When King Philip II proclaimed Madrid the capital of Spain and all her colonies in 1561, he said that he chose it because of the healthy air and brilliant skies and because, like the body's heart, it is located in the center of the Peninsula. As a result of Philip's proclamation, what had been an insignificant Castilian town of 17,000 suddenly burst into being the cosmopolitan nucleus of the Spanish Empire.
One of Europe's youngest capitals, Madrid grew fast, and today the city is a sophisticated metropolis of approximately four million people. More than ever, it is ebullient, outgoing, funloving, proud, stylish, and creative, a city intensely lived in and adored by its varied mosaic of inhabitants.
Throughout its history, a great proportion of its residents have been born elsewhere in Spain, a country of various and diverse cultures. Yet soon after their arrival, they feel adopted and become as genuinely madrileno as native sons and daughters. In recent years the city also has become home to increasing numbers of immigrants from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Though it's not free of the urban ills affecting other Western metropolises (crime and drug use are on the rise, and one survey rated it the second dirtiest capital in Western Europe), Madrid is still basically a safe place and, for the most part, it retains its big city vibrance and glamor.
Madrilenos love to be out on the streets, where walking or strolling the paseois an activity in itself, rather than just a means of getting somewhere. And as the Francoist past has faded there has been a rebirth of indoor and outdoor cafe society. Stylish madrilenos congregate at terrazas (cafes) along Paseo de Recoletos and Paseo de la Castellana day and night, chatting, eating, drinking, and gossiping. Crowded late night, Spanish style pubs, specializing in high decibel rock or soothing classical music, line Calle de las Huertas, one of the liveliest streets in the old part of town.
Things to do in Madrid
Amazingly, this street is also occupied by the early 17th century Convento de las Trinitarias (Convent of the Trinitarian Sisters), where cloistered nuns live and embroider, and where Miguel de Cervantes is buried. In the old section of Lavapies, families gather to eat, drink, and chat with their neighbors at simple restaurants with sidewalk tables. The tertulia, an age-old Madrid custom, brings experts and devotees together for informal discussions.
At the Cafe Gijon, downtown on the broad Paseo de Recoletos a little north of Plaza de la Cibeles, tertulias are generally about theater or literature; art is the favorite topic at the Circulo de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Club) lounge, at the junction of Gran Via with Calle del Alcala; and bullfighting and bull breeding are discussed.
When it's time for the midday aperitivo around 1 PM (when stores, offices, and many museums close), thousands of tapas bars, tabernas, and swank cafes become jammed for a couple of hours until lunchtime at around 2 or 2:30, when they suddenly empty and the restaurants fill up.
They reach another peak when it's aperitivo time again, around 8 PM (as stores, offices, and museums close for the day). At dinnertime, around 10 PM, the restaurants fill up once more. Then it's time for a movie, concert, theater performance, jazz at a cafe, or a stroll.
Madrid boasts the longest nights of any Spanish city. Discotheques don't get started until 1 or 2 AM, and at many, the action continues until 7 AM. Then it's time for a typical Madrid breakfast of thick hot chocolate with churros (sticks or loops of crisp fried dough). Indeed, madrilenos call themselves gatos (cats) because they're out in hordes all night long. Nevertheless, for the most part the city isn't a vacation spot for them - it's a place for hard work as well as for play.
There are many Madrids. In fact, the city is sometimes referred to in the plurallos madriles because of its various facets. In addition to nocturnal Madrid, daytime Madrid, and seasonal Madrid, there are different architectural and historical Madrids.
Madrid and the Moors
Not much remains of medieval Moorish Madrid, and even less is known although legends abound. In AD 852, the Emir of Cordoba, Muhammad I, chose the strategic ravine top above the Rio Manzanares (Manzanares River )where the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) now stands as the site for an alcazar (fortified castle) to guard the route between Toledo and Alcala de Henares against the reconquering Christians. The Moors called it Magerit (later mispronounced as Madrid by Castilians), meaning source of flowing water, referring to water from the nearby Sierra de Guadarrama.
Magerit began to grow, and the Moors built and rebuilt walls to enclose it, keeping up with its random expansion. Fragments of these old walls, as well as sections of underground passageways to the old alcazar, have been uncovered as recently as the 1970sa major site can be seen at Cuesta de la Vega, near the Palacio Real. Other well-preserved remnants of medieval Moorish Magerit are the Casa de los Lujanes and the adjacent Hemeroteca (Periodicals Library) building, both at Plaza de la Villa; the Mudejar tower of the Iglesia de San Nicolds de los Servitas (Church of St.
Nicholas of the Servants of Mary), slightly to the north of the plaza; the Mudejar tower of the Iglesia de San Pedro el Viejo (Church of St. Peter the Elder) on the site of what may have been the original mosque of La Moreria (the Moorish Quarter), to the south of the plaza; and La Moreria itself, a zone of winding alleys around Plaza del Alamillo.
(Mudejar is the Moorish-influenced Gothic style of Moorish craftsmen allowed to live under Christian rule after the Reconquista, the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula.) In 1083, King Alfonso VI and his Christian troops reconquered Madrid and took up residence in the old (no longer existing) alcazar. The madrileno melting pot expanded with the subsequent influx of Christians into what then became medieval Christian Madrid, and more walls were built to surround it.
In addition to raising the city's rank to capital of Spain and moving the throne and court from Toledo, King Philip II of the Habsburg House of Austria (1556-98) launched what is known as Madrid de los Austrias, or the Madrid of the Habsburgs. This is the charming and picturesque section of old Madrid around the Plaza Mayor.
Here the aristocracy built mansions, the clergy founded churches, convents, monasteries, and hospitals, and merchants, artisans, and innkeepers set up shop through the 17th century. Habsburg Madrid grew into a labyrinth of meandering, narrow cobblestone streets and tiny squares lined with severe buildings of stone, brick, and masonry, topped by burnt-red tile roofs. The Spanish Empire was at its zenith, and the siglo de oro (golden age) of Renaissance literature flourished. Streets, squares, and statues bear the names of Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, Quevedo, and Calderon de la Barca, all of whom lived here.
The Barrios of Madrid
The city continued fanning southward, creating such barrios (neighborhoods) as Lavapies and Embajadores, lively with tabernas, mesones (inns), vendors, organ-grinders, and artisans. The castizo (genuine) and uniquely madrileno personality of these barrios and their colorful people were the inspiration of many of the 18th and 19th century zarzuelas (traditional Spanish operettas)such as La Verbena de la Paloma.
On summer evenings, the courtyard of La Corrala, a landmark apartment building located at Plaza Agustin Lara, is transformed into a stage for the performance of such zarzuelas (some of which actually are set in the very same courtyard). Castizo Madrid also inspired many of Goya's paintings depicting majos and majas (popular nicknames for common folk madrilenos and madrilenas), such as Majas on a Balcony, The Kite, The Wedding, and The Parasol.
Anyone visiting Madrid in May and the first half of August should stroll around these barrios castizos to see madrilenos of all ages bedecked in traditional costumes, dancing the graceful chotis in the streets, and enjoying the verbenas (fairs) from nightfall into the wee hours.
When the Habsburg dynasty died out at the end of the 17th century, King Felipe (Philip) V, grandson of France's King Louis XIV, was the chief claimant to the throne of Spain. After a war of succession, he established the Bourbon dynasty as the legitimate heir to the kingdom in 1770. The Bourbon monarchs (los borbones) began the new century by setting out to create a splendid new European capital worthy of their neoclassical French models.
When the medieval alcazar burned down, Felipe V commissioned top architects to replace it with a grandiose palace comparable to Versailles. Expansion to the east of old Habsburg Madrid, with wide avenues and large squares laid out in geometric configuration, transformed Madrid into a model city of the Enlightenment. The city's urban renewal, embellishment, and social progress culminated with the reign of King Carlos III, the Construction King of the Enlightenment, known affectionately as the King Mayor. Carlos commissioned Juan de Villanueva to design a neo- classical natural science museum, which later became the Museo Nacional del Prado (Prado Museum), and the adjacent Real Jardin Botanico (Royal Botanical Garden).
The Paseo del Prado Madrid
The exquisite treelined Paseo del Prado, with its Neptune, Apollo, and Cibeles fountains by Ventura Rodriguez; the monumental Puerta de Alcala (then marking the eastern end of the city); and the immense Hospital General de San Carlos (now the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Spain's museum of modern and contemporary art) are among the legacies of Carlos III.
The steady progress of the city and the country foundered in 1808, when Napoleon was encouraged to invade Spain because of the weakness of Carlos IV, the next Bourbon king. The French succeeded in the invasion after ruthlessly executing Spanish resisters on May 2, a tragedy immortalized by Goya in his famous paintings now in the Prado. At the Plaza de la Lealtad on Paseo del Prado, a memorial obelisk with an eternal flame commemorates el Dos de Mayo (the second of May).
Napolean and Madrid
At Napoleon's insistence, Joseph Bonaparte, his brother, was crowned King of Spain in 1808. In his quest for open space for ongoing urban renewal, Joseph Bonaparte tore down picturesque chunks of Habsburg Madrid, includmg mUCh. of the Palacio del Parque del Buen Retiro (Retiro Park Palace) and a church In the small Plaza de Ramales that contained the grave of Velazquez. But the Spanish War of Independence led to the expulsion of the French and the return to the throne of a Bourbon king, Fernando VII, in 1813.
In the last third of the 19th century, Romantic Madrid spread farther northward. Aristocratic palatial mansions graced the elegant Salamanca dlstnct, where today some of Madrid's finest shops and boutiques line Calles Serrano and Velazquez. Paseo del Prado extended north to become Paseo de Recoletos and, still farther north, Paseo de la Castellana.
By the early 20th century, a transportation problem arose: There was no street connecting the new outlying districts of Salamanca and Arguelles. The solutIon was to chop through part of old Madrid and construct a new thoroughfare, the Gran Via.
The instility of the monarchy during the early 20th century led once again to political upheaval. Alfonso XIII finally abdicated in 1931 to avoid a civil war. But the leftist Republican government's decentralization plan and reform measures aroused strenuous rightwing opposition, which resulted In msurrection that flared into the Spanish Civil War.
Franco and Madrid
Much of Madrid, which remained loyal to the Republican government, was blown to pieces at the hands of Generalissimo Francisco Franco's Nationalist forces . During the 36 years of Franco's dictatorship, Madrid's spirit and creativIty were stIfled. Franco's death in 1975, the restoration of the monarch in the persona of King Juan Carlos I, and the institution of a representative democratic government brought about a dramatic surge of activity in many facets of the city, from construction to culture.
Madrid Attractions
Madrid now boasts several major attractions built since the advent of democracy. The Triangulo del Arte (Triangle of Art) encompasses the Museo Nacional Centro deArte Reina Sofia (Queen Sofia National Museum of Art); the refurbished Prado; and the Palacio de Villahermosa, remodeled and reopened in 1992 to exhibit the 800 artworks (primarily paintings) of the Thyssen Bornemisza Collection, formerly housed in Lugano, Switzerland's Villa Favorita and considered to be the world's second-most important private art collection after that of the Queen of England. Next to the new Auditorio Nacional on Calle Principe de Vergara, another newcomer, the Museo de la Ciudad (Museum of the City), has exhibits that trace the evolution of Madrid. Flanking the Plaza Mayor (Main Square), the 17th-century Casa de la Panaderia has been refurbished and opened as a cultural center.
The restored 19th-century Palacio de Linares in the Plaza de la Cibeles has been given a new name - the Palacio del Quinto Centenario - and converted into the Museo de America (Museum of America), a cultural and diplomatic center devoted to Spain's relationship with Latin America. The palace also houses the Casa de America, one of the best and most interesting restaurants in Madrid .
Madrid Cathedral
In addition, Madrid once again has a true cathedral. Catedral de la Almudena (Cathedral of Our Lady of the Almudena), named for the city's female patron saint (its male patron is St. Isidro), is located in Plaza de la Armerfa facing the southern facade of the Palacio Real. Bombed during the civil war and semi-derelict for years, its tedious and intermittent reconstruction went into fastforward in preparation for the 1993 visit to Madrid of Pope John Paul II. La Almudena is a neoclassical structure of scant artistic interest, but it does enjoy the distinction of being the oldest new cathedral in Europe. As such, it is a fitting symbol of Madrid, a multifacted, modern capital that retains much of its rich history and traditions.
Places to go in Madrid
For a wonderfully romantic view of Madrid, watch the sun set from the 25th-floor roof garden and pool of the Plaza hotel on the Plaza de Espana. The vivid Velazquez sky, portrayed in the artist's famous paintings, is usually tinted with a golden hue. Looking over the tile rooftops, visitors will see a fine view of the Palacio Real and to the north the distant Sierra de Guadarrama. The hotel's terrace and pool are open daily during the summer months; there's an admission charge.
Another fine vantage point is the 300-foot Faro de Moncloa (Moncloa Lighthouse, known as the landlocked lighthouse) in Plaza de la Moncloa It overlooks the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and offers a 360degre panorama of the capital; on a clear day you can even see El Escorial monastery . One of the most exquisite picture-postcard views of Madrid can be had from the east-facing rooms of the Palace hotel .
In one glance guests can take in the Plaza de Neptuno with its splendid fountain the facade of the Belle Epoque Ritz hotel, the Prado, the imposing 16th: century Iglesia de San Jeronimo (the church in which many Spanish monarchs have been crowned or wed), and the neoclassical facade of the Real Academia de la Lengua Espanola (Royal Academy of the Spanish Language) all framed in green by the tree-lined Paseo del Prado and the Real Jardin Botanico.
Special places to go in Madrid
The bustling Puerta del Sol, kilometer zero of the Spanish road network, and the Plaza de la Cibeles traffic circle are two focal points at the heart of Madrid. The Atocha railroad station and traffic circle mark the southern extremity of this zone, the Palacio Real and Parque del Retiro form its western and eastern borders, respectively, and Plaza de Colon marks its northern limit. One major tree-lined avenue, with three names, bisects the entire city from top to bottom. Its southern section, between Atocha and Plaza de la Cibeles, is called Paseo del Prado. From Cibeles north to Plaza de Colon, its name is Paseo de Recoletos.
At Plaza de Colon, it becomes the long Paseo de la Castellana, which runs through modern Madrid to the north end of the city beyond Plaza de Castilla and the Chamartin railroad station. The two major east-west arteries are Calle de Alcala and the Gran Via; the latter angles northwest to Plaza de Espana.
The best way to see Madrid is by walking; many picturesque areas can be seen only on foot. One good stroll is from Puerta del Sol to Plaza Mayor, then downhill to Plaza de Oriente. Good maps of the city are provided free of charge at the tourist offices. season. Weekend schedules are often shorter than during weekdays.
The Plaza Mayor Madrid
The grandiose main square of downtown Madrid is closed to vehicular traffic and easily missed on foot if you don't aim for it and go in through oe of th nine arched entryways. Built in two years (1617-18) by order of King Felipe III and executed by Juan Gomez de Mora along the lines of Juan de Herrera's design for the imposing palace monastery El Escorial, it is the quintessence of Habsburg Madridcobblestones, tile roofs, and imposing austere buildings. The plaza became the stage for a wide variety of 17th and 18th century spectacles, and audiences of more than 50,000 witnessed hangings, burnings, and the decapitation of heretics, as well as canonizations of saints, jousting tournaments, plays, circuses, and even bullfights.
The 477 balconies of the surrounding buildings served as spectator boxes - not for the tenants, but for royalty and aristocrats. Beautifully refurbished, the Plaza Mayor is still lively, but it now offers tamer types of entertainment - la tuna (strolling student minstrels in period costume), other amateur musicians, artists, and on-the-spot portrait painters selling their works, as well as summer concerts and ballets, and outdoor cafes for watching it all.
The plaza's most important edifice is the Casa de la Panaderia (Bakers' House), occupying most of the north side, and the Casa de la Carniceria (Butchers' House) on the south side. After the plaza's construction, all the major guilds were represented under the arches around the perimeter. Continuing this tradition, myriad shops, many over a century old, still line the arcades, and on Sunday mornings philatelists and numismatists set up shop under the arches, to the delight of stamp and coin collectors.
During the yuletide season, numerous stands sell lovely Christmas ornaments. Visitors can easily lose their sense of direction inside this vast enclosure, so it's helpful to know that the bronze equestrian statue of Felipe III in the center is facing east (toward the Prado). The landmark Arco de Cuchilleros entrance with its huge arch is at the southwest corner.
Puerta del Sol Madrid
This vast oblong plaza is the bustling nerve center of modern Madrid life. Ten streets converge here, including the arteries of Alcala, San Jeronimo, Mayor, and Arenal. On the south side is the imposing building which houses the government of the Greater Madrid Autonomous Region. Near the curb, in front of its main entrance, a famous emblem in the sidewalk marks kilometer zero, the central point from which all Spanish highways radiate and from which their distance is measured. Directly across the plaza stands the venerated bronze statue of El Oso y el Madrono (The Bear and the Madrona Berry Tree), the symbol and coat of arms of Madrid since the 13th century, when central Madrid was wooded and it wasn't unusual to see bears roaming around.
The Prado Museum Madrid
One of the world's supreme art museums, the Prado is a treasure house of over 4,000 universal masterpieces, most of which were acquired over the centuries by art-loving Spanish monarchs. The wealth of Spanish paintings includes famous works by El Greco (including the Adoration of the Shepherds), Zurbaran, Velazquez (including The Spinners and the famous Las Meninas, The Maids of Honor), Murillo, Ribera (including the Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew), and Goya (including his renowned Naked Maja and Maja Clothed).
On the ground floor, a special section is devoted to the tapestry cartoons designed by Goya for the palace monastery outside the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial and to his extraordinary Disasters of War etchings, which serve as hIs commentary on Spain's War of Independence Visitors also will find Goya's stunning Second of May and Third of May canvases.
Vast rooms are devoted to Italians Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Raphael Correggio, Caravaggio, Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese. Other rooms display paintings by Flemish and German masters such as Rubens, van de Weyden, Hieronymus Bosch (including The Garden of Earthly Delights) Memling, Durer, and Van Dyck. From the Dutch are works by Rembrandt, Metsu, and Hobbema. French art is represented by Poussin, Lorrain, and Watteau, and English art by Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Lawrence.
The neo-classical Prado building was originally a natural science museum conceived by Carlos III in 1785. In 1819, King Fernando VII converted it into a museum to house the royal art collection. In addition to the main Prado in the Villanueva building, the museum has an annex, the Cason del Buen Retiro, which resembles a small Greek temple and is just up a hill from the Goya statue that stands at the Prado's north facade. Once the stately ballroom of the 17th-century Palacio Real del Buen Retiro (Royal Retiro Palace Complex), which was destroyed during the French occupatIon of Madrid, It now contains the Museo Nacional del Siglo XIX (National Museum of the 19th Century).
The Prado collection is so vast that it is impossible to savor its wonders in a single visit. If time is limited, it is best to select a few galleries of special interest, or hire of one of the extremely knowledgeable governmentlicensed freelance guides at the main entrance. The guides are more readily available in the early morning, and their hourly fee is reasonable. Reproductions from the Prado's collection, postcards, and fine arts books are sold at the shop inside the museum. There's also a bar-restaurant on the premises.
The Villahermosa Palace Madrid
Diagonally across Plaza Canova del Castillo (the square with the Fuente de Neptuno, or Neptune Fountain) from the Prado, this splendid 1806 palace was redesigned by architect Rafael Moneo as the permanent home of 800 masterpieces (primarily paintings) initially on loan and subsequently purchased by the Spanish government from Baron Hans Heinrich ThyssenBornemisza de Kaszon (another 80 are on permanent display in Barcelona's Monestir de Pedralbes).
Formerly located in Lugano, Switzerland's Villa Favorita, the ThyssenBornemisza Collection is considered the second in importance among the world's private art collections after that of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. In the airy, modern interior galleries visitors will find an astonishing collection ranging from 13th-century Italian and Dutch primitives to the present day.
There are 16th-century paintings by Titian, Tintoretto and El Greco; 17thcentury Baroque works by masters such as Velazquez, Murillo, Caravaggio, Van Dyck, Brueghel, Rubens, and Rembrandt; 18th-century pieces from Canaletto, Tiepolo, Reynolds, and Watteau; and gems from 19thcentury artists including Sargent, Goya, Manet, Monet, Degas, Pissarro, Renoir, Cezanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, ToulouseLautrec, and Matisse. The 20th century is also well represented, by Picasso, Chagall, Gris, KIee, Mir6, Giacometti, de Kooning, O'Keeffe, Dalf, Hopper, Magritte, Bacon, Freud, Kandinsky, and Braque. In the museum there is a coffee sho, a book and souvenir shop, and a conference room.
The Royal Botanical Garden Madrid
The garden was designed in 1774 by Juan de Villanueva, the same architect who designed the Prado (whose south facade it faces). Twenty manicured acres contain some 30,000 species of plants and flowers from Spain and throughout the world. Carlos III commissioned the project as part of his urban refurbishment program. By his order, therapeutic and edicinal plants and herbs were distributed free to those in need. Between the Prado and the entrance to the garden is the small Plaza de Murillo, which has a bronze statue of the 17thcentury painter and the Cuatro Fuentes, four fountains of mythological triton cherubs playing with dolphins.
The Royal Palace Madrid
The Moors chose a strategic site overlooking the Rio Manzanares to build their alcazar, or castle fortress. It was renovated after the 11th century Christian reconquest of Madrid, and King Philip II made it the royal residence after proclaiming Madrid the capital of Spain in 1561. After the alcazar was destroyed by fire on Christmas Eve 1734, a new palace was built. It took 26 years to complete the colossus of granite and white limestone, with walls 13 feet thick, more than 2,800 rooms, 23 courtyards, and magnificently opulent interiors.
At the north side are the formal Jardines de Sabatini (Sabatini Gardens); and down the slopes on the west side is the Campo del Moro - 20 acres of forest, manicured gardens, and fountains, now a public park. The palace's main entrance is on the south side, through the tall iron gates leading into an immense courtyard called the Plaza de la Armerfa (Armory Plaza), a setting for the pageantry of royal occasions. The imposing structure at the courtyard's south end is the finally completed Catedral de la Almudena.
The palace is seen by guided tour, with different sections covered on different tours, led by Spanish and English speaking guides. The king and queen of Spain live in the Palacio de la Zarzuela on the outskirts of Madrid, but the Palacio Real still is used for official occasions and is closed to the public at those times.
The National Art Museum Madrid
This gargantuan 18th-century building was the Hospital General de San Carlos until 1965. Followmg a tremendous reconstruction project the building was. inaugurated in 1986 as a museum devoted to contemporary art, named in honor of the present queen of Spain. Since then, it has taken Its place among the world's leading contemporary art galleries and modern art museums.
The museum's collection encompasses that of the former Museo Espanol de Arte Contemporaneo (Spanish Contemporary Art Musem), whlch consists of 3,000 paintings: 9,000 drawings, and 400 sculptures, including works by Picasso, Mlro, Dah, Juan Gris, and Julio Gonzalez. A recent addition to its still-growing permanent collection is Picasso's monumental Guernica (moved here from the Prado's Cason del Buen Retiro annex.
The museum also contains the foremost contemporary art library with state of the art braille facilities, videos, photography collections, research systems, and workshops. Throughout the year, prominent exhibitIons are mounted at the museum's two landmark annexes in Parque del Buen Retlro, the Palacio de Veltizquez and Palacio de Crista.
The Parque El Buen Retiro Madrid
During the early 17th century, this was a royal retreat and the grounds of both a royal palace complex and a porcelain factory, then on the outskirts of town. Now Madrid's foremost public park, the Retiro encompasses 300 peaceful acres of forest, manicured gardens, sttuary, fountains, picnic grounds, and cafes. On a sunny Sunday afternoon, It seems all Madrid comes to jog, hug, gossip, or walk the dog around the lakeside colonnade. Art exhibitions are held at the park's Palacio de Crista I, a 19th century jewel of glass and wrought iron, and at the Palacio de Velazquez, named for its architect, not for the painter.
During July and August, as part of the city-sponsored cultural program Verano en la Villa (Sumer in. the City), classical and flamenco concerts are staged in the lardtnes Cecllio Rodriguez (Cecilio Rodriguez Gardens) near the Menendez pelayo, and the outdoor cinema (entrance on Alfonso XII) screens Spanish and foreign (including US) films (schedules change from year to year; check with the tourist office).
The Royal Monastery of Barefoot Carmelites Madrid
Behind its stark stone facade is an opulent interior filled with an astonishing wealth of artistic treasures and ornamentation bestowed by kings and noblemen. Founded in 1559 by Princess Juana of Austria, sister of Philip II, the convent welcomed disconsolate empresses, queens, princesses, and infantas, including Juana's sister Maria, Empress of Germany. The grandiose stairway is a breathtaking example of barroco madrileno, every centimeter lavishly decorated with frescoes and carved wood. Art treasures include works by EI Greco, Zurbaran, Titian, and Sanchez Coello, as well as Rubens tapestries. The windows of the upper floor afford a lovely view over the tranquil rooftop garden, where the cloistered nuns grow their vegetables as they have for centuries.
Monastery of the Incarnation Madrid
Built by order of Queen Margarita of Austria, wife of King Felipe III, this Augustinian convent was founded in 1616. Designed in the severe classical style by Juan Gomez de Mora, its fagade gives no clue to the bounteous religious and secular art treasures inside. The dazzling reliquary room displays some 1,500 religious relics contained in priceless gold and silver urns and jeweled cases. Among them is a vial of the powdered blood of the 3rdcentury St. Pantaleon, which is said to liquify every year on his feast day, July 27.
This is another active cloistered convent, so individuals and groups must be escorted by resident guides.
Car hire from Madrid Airport
Madrid Airport car hire can be booked before you fly. Car rentals at Madrid Airport are easy to pick up and drop off, and provide the easiest way to get to your accommodation in Madrid, or to travel around the surrounding regions of Spain.
The Municipal Museum Madrid
Devoted to the history of Madrid, this fine museum will enhance any visitor's awareness of the city's evolution, culture, and personality. It is filled with art, furnishings, porcelains, photographs, engravings, and meticulously detailed maps and models of the city during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The museum building, declared a national monument in 1919, was originally an 18th-century hospital, and its elaborately ornate entrance is a memorable sight; the style it's in is called Churrigueresque, named after a distinctly Spanish Baroque dynasty of architects and artists.
The Royal Tapestry Museum Madrid
Established early in the 18th century, this factory museum continues to use authentic traditional techniques in producing handmade Spanish tapestries and rugs. In addition to the permanent collection, visitors can see the workshops and watch master artisans at work weaving tapestries from cartoons by Goya and other artists, knotting luxuriant rugs, or doing intricate restoration work. Rugs and tapestries can be purchased by special order, and even can be custom made from the customer's own design.
The Army Museum Madrid
An amazing array of more than 27,000 items related to war throughout Spain's history - uniforms, armor, cannon, swords (including one belonging to EI Cid), stupendous collections of miniature soldiers, and portraits of heroines and heroes are displayed here. Housed in the vast Baroque interior of one of the two surviving buildings of the 17th century Palacio Real del Buen Retiro (Royal Retiro Palace) complex, this museum is well worth seeing.
Casa de Campo Madrid
Once the private royal hunting grounds, this 4,300 acre forested public park on the right bank of the Rio (River) Manzanares is a playground for madrilenos and visitors alike. It has a zoo, picnic and fair grounds (important trade fairs and conventions are held here), and a giant amusement park, the Parque de Atracciones Casa de Campo, with rides, open-air entertainment, and a spirited carnival atmosphere. Other highlights include a concert stadium, an all-encompassing sports complex, a small lake, and the bullpens of La Venta de Batan (for bullfight practice and previews of the bulls).
One of Europe's youngest capitals, Madrid grew fast, and today the city is a sophisticated metropolis of approximately four million people. More than ever, it is ebullient, outgoing, funloving, proud, stylish, and creative, a city intensely lived in and adored by its varied mosaic of inhabitants.
Throughout its history, a great proportion of its residents have been born elsewhere in Spain, a country of various and diverse cultures. Yet soon after their arrival, they feel adopted and become as genuinely madrileno as native sons and daughters. In recent years the city also has become home to increasing numbers of immigrants from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Though it's not free of the urban ills affecting other Western metropolises (crime and drug use are on the rise, and one survey rated it the second dirtiest capital in Western Europe), Madrid is still basically a safe place and, for the most part, it retains its big city vibrance and glamor.
Madrilenos love to be out on the streets, where walking or strolling the paseois an activity in itself, rather than just a means of getting somewhere. And as the Francoist past has faded there has been a rebirth of indoor and outdoor cafe society. Stylish madrilenos congregate at terrazas (cafes) along Paseo de Recoletos and Paseo de la Castellana day and night, chatting, eating, drinking, and gossiping. Crowded late night, Spanish style pubs, specializing in high decibel rock or soothing classical music, line Calle de las Huertas, one of the liveliest streets in the old part of town.
Things to do in Madrid
Amazingly, this street is also occupied by the early 17th century Convento de las Trinitarias (Convent of the Trinitarian Sisters), where cloistered nuns live and embroider, and where Miguel de Cervantes is buried. In the old section of Lavapies, families gather to eat, drink, and chat with their neighbors at simple restaurants with sidewalk tables. The tertulia, an age-old Madrid custom, brings experts and devotees together for informal discussions.
At the Cafe Gijon, downtown on the broad Paseo de Recoletos a little north of Plaza de la Cibeles, tertulias are generally about theater or literature; art is the favorite topic at the Circulo de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Club) lounge, at the junction of Gran Via with Calle del Alcala; and bullfighting and bull breeding are discussed.
When it's time for the midday aperitivo around 1 PM (when stores, offices, and many museums close), thousands of tapas bars, tabernas, and swank cafes become jammed for a couple of hours until lunchtime at around 2 or 2:30, when they suddenly empty and the restaurants fill up.
They reach another peak when it's aperitivo time again, around 8 PM (as stores, offices, and museums close for the day). At dinnertime, around 10 PM, the restaurants fill up once more. Then it's time for a movie, concert, theater performance, jazz at a cafe, or a stroll.
Madrid boasts the longest nights of any Spanish city. Discotheques don't get started until 1 or 2 AM, and at many, the action continues until 7 AM. Then it's time for a typical Madrid breakfast of thick hot chocolate with churros (sticks or loops of crisp fried dough). Indeed, madrilenos call themselves gatos (cats) because they're out in hordes all night long. Nevertheless, for the most part the city isn't a vacation spot for them - it's a place for hard work as well as for play.
There are many Madrids. In fact, the city is sometimes referred to in the plurallos madriles because of its various facets. In addition to nocturnal Madrid, daytime Madrid, and seasonal Madrid, there are different architectural and historical Madrids.
Madrid and the Moors
Not much remains of medieval Moorish Madrid, and even less is known although legends abound. In AD 852, the Emir of Cordoba, Muhammad I, chose the strategic ravine top above the Rio Manzanares (Manzanares River )where the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) now stands as the site for an alcazar (fortified castle) to guard the route between Toledo and Alcala de Henares against the reconquering Christians. The Moors called it Magerit (later mispronounced as Madrid by Castilians), meaning source of flowing water, referring to water from the nearby Sierra de Guadarrama.
Magerit began to grow, and the Moors built and rebuilt walls to enclose it, keeping up with its random expansion. Fragments of these old walls, as well as sections of underground passageways to the old alcazar, have been uncovered as recently as the 1970sa major site can be seen at Cuesta de la Vega, near the Palacio Real. Other well-preserved remnants of medieval Moorish Magerit are the Casa de los Lujanes and the adjacent Hemeroteca (Periodicals Library) building, both at Plaza de la Villa; the Mudejar tower of the Iglesia de San Nicolds de los Servitas (Church of St.
Nicholas of the Servants of Mary), slightly to the north of the plaza; the Mudejar tower of the Iglesia de San Pedro el Viejo (Church of St. Peter the Elder) on the site of what may have been the original mosque of La Moreria (the Moorish Quarter), to the south of the plaza; and La Moreria itself, a zone of winding alleys around Plaza del Alamillo.
(Mudejar is the Moorish-influenced Gothic style of Moorish craftsmen allowed to live under Christian rule after the Reconquista, the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula.) In 1083, King Alfonso VI and his Christian troops reconquered Madrid and took up residence in the old (no longer existing) alcazar. The madrileno melting pot expanded with the subsequent influx of Christians into what then became medieval Christian Madrid, and more walls were built to surround it.
In addition to raising the city's rank to capital of Spain and moving the throne and court from Toledo, King Philip II of the Habsburg House of Austria (1556-98) launched what is known as Madrid de los Austrias, or the Madrid of the Habsburgs. This is the charming and picturesque section of old Madrid around the Plaza Mayor.
Here the aristocracy built mansions, the clergy founded churches, convents, monasteries, and hospitals, and merchants, artisans, and innkeepers set up shop through the 17th century. Habsburg Madrid grew into a labyrinth of meandering, narrow cobblestone streets and tiny squares lined with severe buildings of stone, brick, and masonry, topped by burnt-red tile roofs. The Spanish Empire was at its zenith, and the siglo de oro (golden age) of Renaissance literature flourished. Streets, squares, and statues bear the names of Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, Quevedo, and Calderon de la Barca, all of whom lived here.
The Barrios of Madrid
The city continued fanning southward, creating such barrios (neighborhoods) as Lavapies and Embajadores, lively with tabernas, mesones (inns), vendors, organ-grinders, and artisans. The castizo (genuine) and uniquely madrileno personality of these barrios and their colorful people were the inspiration of many of the 18th and 19th century zarzuelas (traditional Spanish operettas)such as La Verbena de la Paloma.
On summer evenings, the courtyard of La Corrala, a landmark apartment building located at Plaza Agustin Lara, is transformed into a stage for the performance of such zarzuelas (some of which actually are set in the very same courtyard). Castizo Madrid also inspired many of Goya's paintings depicting majos and majas (popular nicknames for common folk madrilenos and madrilenas), such as Majas on a Balcony, The Kite, The Wedding, and The Parasol.
Anyone visiting Madrid in May and the first half of August should stroll around these barrios castizos to see madrilenos of all ages bedecked in traditional costumes, dancing the graceful chotis in the streets, and enjoying the verbenas (fairs) from nightfall into the wee hours.
When the Habsburg dynasty died out at the end of the 17th century, King Felipe (Philip) V, grandson of France's King Louis XIV, was the chief claimant to the throne of Spain. After a war of succession, he established the Bourbon dynasty as the legitimate heir to the kingdom in 1770. The Bourbon monarchs (los borbones) began the new century by setting out to create a splendid new European capital worthy of their neoclassical French models.
When the medieval alcazar burned down, Felipe V commissioned top architects to replace it with a grandiose palace comparable to Versailles. Expansion to the east of old Habsburg Madrid, with wide avenues and large squares laid out in geometric configuration, transformed Madrid into a model city of the Enlightenment. The city's urban renewal, embellishment, and social progress culminated with the reign of King Carlos III, the Construction King of the Enlightenment, known affectionately as the King Mayor. Carlos commissioned Juan de Villanueva to design a neo- classical natural science museum, which later became the Museo Nacional del Prado (Prado Museum), and the adjacent Real Jardin Botanico (Royal Botanical Garden).
The Paseo del Prado Madrid
The exquisite treelined Paseo del Prado, with its Neptune, Apollo, and Cibeles fountains by Ventura Rodriguez; the monumental Puerta de Alcala (then marking the eastern end of the city); and the immense Hospital General de San Carlos (now the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Spain's museum of modern and contemporary art) are among the legacies of Carlos III.
The steady progress of the city and the country foundered in 1808, when Napoleon was encouraged to invade Spain because of the weakness of Carlos IV, the next Bourbon king. The French succeeded in the invasion after ruthlessly executing Spanish resisters on May 2, a tragedy immortalized by Goya in his famous paintings now in the Prado. At the Plaza de la Lealtad on Paseo del Prado, a memorial obelisk with an eternal flame commemorates el Dos de Mayo (the second of May).
Napolean and Madrid
At Napoleon's insistence, Joseph Bonaparte, his brother, was crowned King of Spain in 1808. In his quest for open space for ongoing urban renewal, Joseph Bonaparte tore down picturesque chunks of Habsburg Madrid, includmg mUCh. of the Palacio del Parque del Buen Retiro (Retiro Park Palace) and a church In the small Plaza de Ramales that contained the grave of Velazquez. But the Spanish War of Independence led to the expulsion of the French and the return to the throne of a Bourbon king, Fernando VII, in 1813.
In the last third of the 19th century, Romantic Madrid spread farther northward. Aristocratic palatial mansions graced the elegant Salamanca dlstnct, where today some of Madrid's finest shops and boutiques line Calles Serrano and Velazquez. Paseo del Prado extended north to become Paseo de Recoletos and, still farther north, Paseo de la Castellana.
By the early 20th century, a transportation problem arose: There was no street connecting the new outlying districts of Salamanca and Arguelles. The solutIon was to chop through part of old Madrid and construct a new thoroughfare, the Gran Via.
The instility of the monarchy during the early 20th century led once again to political upheaval. Alfonso XIII finally abdicated in 1931 to avoid a civil war. But the leftist Republican government's decentralization plan and reform measures aroused strenuous rightwing opposition, which resulted In msurrection that flared into the Spanish Civil War.
Franco and Madrid
Much of Madrid, which remained loyal to the Republican government, was blown to pieces at the hands of Generalissimo Francisco Franco's Nationalist forces . During the 36 years of Franco's dictatorship, Madrid's spirit and creativIty were stIfled. Franco's death in 1975, the restoration of the monarch in the persona of King Juan Carlos I, and the institution of a representative democratic government brought about a dramatic surge of activity in many facets of the city, from construction to culture.
Madrid Attractions
Madrid now boasts several major attractions built since the advent of democracy. The Triangulo del Arte (Triangle of Art) encompasses the Museo Nacional Centro deArte Reina Sofia (Queen Sofia National Museum of Art); the refurbished Prado; and the Palacio de Villahermosa, remodeled and reopened in 1992 to exhibit the 800 artworks (primarily paintings) of the Thyssen Bornemisza Collection, formerly housed in Lugano, Switzerland's Villa Favorita and considered to be the world's second-most important private art collection after that of the Queen of England. Next to the new Auditorio Nacional on Calle Principe de Vergara, another newcomer, the Museo de la Ciudad (Museum of the City), has exhibits that trace the evolution of Madrid. Flanking the Plaza Mayor (Main Square), the 17th-century Casa de la Panaderia has been refurbished and opened as a cultural center.
The restored 19th-century Palacio de Linares in the Plaza de la Cibeles has been given a new name - the Palacio del Quinto Centenario - and converted into the Museo de America (Museum of America), a cultural and diplomatic center devoted to Spain's relationship with Latin America. The palace also houses the Casa de America, one of the best and most interesting restaurants in Madrid .
Madrid Cathedral
In addition, Madrid once again has a true cathedral. Catedral de la Almudena (Cathedral of Our Lady of the Almudena), named for the city's female patron saint (its male patron is St. Isidro), is located in Plaza de la Armerfa facing the southern facade of the Palacio Real. Bombed during the civil war and semi-derelict for years, its tedious and intermittent reconstruction went into fastforward in preparation for the 1993 visit to Madrid of Pope John Paul II. La Almudena is a neoclassical structure of scant artistic interest, but it does enjoy the distinction of being the oldest new cathedral in Europe. As such, it is a fitting symbol of Madrid, a multifacted, modern capital that retains much of its rich history and traditions.
Places to go in Madrid
For a wonderfully romantic view of Madrid, watch the sun set from the 25th-floor roof garden and pool of the Plaza hotel on the Plaza de Espana. The vivid Velazquez sky, portrayed in the artist's famous paintings, is usually tinted with a golden hue. Looking over the tile rooftops, visitors will see a fine view of the Palacio Real and to the north the distant Sierra de Guadarrama. The hotel's terrace and pool are open daily during the summer months; there's an admission charge.
Another fine vantage point is the 300-foot Faro de Moncloa (Moncloa Lighthouse, known as the landlocked lighthouse) in Plaza de la Moncloa It overlooks the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and offers a 360degre panorama of the capital; on a clear day you can even see El Escorial monastery . One of the most exquisite picture-postcard views of Madrid can be had from the east-facing rooms of the Palace hotel .
In one glance guests can take in the Plaza de Neptuno with its splendid fountain the facade of the Belle Epoque Ritz hotel, the Prado, the imposing 16th: century Iglesia de San Jeronimo (the church in which many Spanish monarchs have been crowned or wed), and the neoclassical facade of the Real Academia de la Lengua Espanola (Royal Academy of the Spanish Language) all framed in green by the tree-lined Paseo del Prado and the Real Jardin Botanico.
Special places to go in Madrid
The bustling Puerta del Sol, kilometer zero of the Spanish road network, and the Plaza de la Cibeles traffic circle are two focal points at the heart of Madrid. The Atocha railroad station and traffic circle mark the southern extremity of this zone, the Palacio Real and Parque del Retiro form its western and eastern borders, respectively, and Plaza de Colon marks its northern limit. One major tree-lined avenue, with three names, bisects the entire city from top to bottom. Its southern section, between Atocha and Plaza de la Cibeles, is called Paseo del Prado. From Cibeles north to Plaza de Colon, its name is Paseo de Recoletos.
At Plaza de Colon, it becomes the long Paseo de la Castellana, which runs through modern Madrid to the north end of the city beyond Plaza de Castilla and the Chamartin railroad station. The two major east-west arteries are Calle de Alcala and the Gran Via; the latter angles northwest to Plaza de Espana.
The best way to see Madrid is by walking; many picturesque areas can be seen only on foot. One good stroll is from Puerta del Sol to Plaza Mayor, then downhill to Plaza de Oriente. Good maps of the city are provided free of charge at the tourist offices. season. Weekend schedules are often shorter than during weekdays.
The Plaza Mayor Madrid
The grandiose main square of downtown Madrid is closed to vehicular traffic and easily missed on foot if you don't aim for it and go in through oe of th nine arched entryways. Built in two years (1617-18) by order of King Felipe III and executed by Juan Gomez de Mora along the lines of Juan de Herrera's design for the imposing palace monastery El Escorial, it is the quintessence of Habsburg Madridcobblestones, tile roofs, and imposing austere buildings. The plaza became the stage for a wide variety of 17th and 18th century spectacles, and audiences of more than 50,000 witnessed hangings, burnings, and the decapitation of heretics, as well as canonizations of saints, jousting tournaments, plays, circuses, and even bullfights.
The 477 balconies of the surrounding buildings served as spectator boxes - not for the tenants, but for royalty and aristocrats. Beautifully refurbished, the Plaza Mayor is still lively, but it now offers tamer types of entertainment - la tuna (strolling student minstrels in period costume), other amateur musicians, artists, and on-the-spot portrait painters selling their works, as well as summer concerts and ballets, and outdoor cafes for watching it all.
The plaza's most important edifice is the Casa de la Panaderia (Bakers' House), occupying most of the north side, and the Casa de la Carniceria (Butchers' House) on the south side. After the plaza's construction, all the major guilds were represented under the arches around the perimeter. Continuing this tradition, myriad shops, many over a century old, still line the arcades, and on Sunday mornings philatelists and numismatists set up shop under the arches, to the delight of stamp and coin collectors.
During the yuletide season, numerous stands sell lovely Christmas ornaments. Visitors can easily lose their sense of direction inside this vast enclosure, so it's helpful to know that the bronze equestrian statue of Felipe III in the center is facing east (toward the Prado). The landmark Arco de Cuchilleros entrance with its huge arch is at the southwest corner.
Puerta del Sol Madrid
This vast oblong plaza is the bustling nerve center of modern Madrid life. Ten streets converge here, including the arteries of Alcala, San Jeronimo, Mayor, and Arenal. On the south side is the imposing building which houses the government of the Greater Madrid Autonomous Region. Near the curb, in front of its main entrance, a famous emblem in the sidewalk marks kilometer zero, the central point from which all Spanish highways radiate and from which their distance is measured. Directly across the plaza stands the venerated bronze statue of El Oso y el Madrono (The Bear and the Madrona Berry Tree), the symbol and coat of arms of Madrid since the 13th century, when central Madrid was wooded and it wasn't unusual to see bears roaming around.
The Prado Museum Madrid
One of the world's supreme art museums, the Prado is a treasure house of over 4,000 universal masterpieces, most of which were acquired over the centuries by art-loving Spanish monarchs. The wealth of Spanish paintings includes famous works by El Greco (including the Adoration of the Shepherds), Zurbaran, Velazquez (including The Spinners and the famous Las Meninas, The Maids of Honor), Murillo, Ribera (including the Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew), and Goya (including his renowned Naked Maja and Maja Clothed).
On the ground floor, a special section is devoted to the tapestry cartoons designed by Goya for the palace monastery outside the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial and to his extraordinary Disasters of War etchings, which serve as hIs commentary on Spain's War of Independence Visitors also will find Goya's stunning Second of May and Third of May canvases.
Vast rooms are devoted to Italians Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Raphael Correggio, Caravaggio, Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese. Other rooms display paintings by Flemish and German masters such as Rubens, van de Weyden, Hieronymus Bosch (including The Garden of Earthly Delights) Memling, Durer, and Van Dyck. From the Dutch are works by Rembrandt, Metsu, and Hobbema. French art is represented by Poussin, Lorrain, and Watteau, and English art by Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Lawrence.
The neo-classical Prado building was originally a natural science museum conceived by Carlos III in 1785. In 1819, King Fernando VII converted it into a museum to house the royal art collection. In addition to the main Prado in the Villanueva building, the museum has an annex, the Cason del Buen Retiro, which resembles a small Greek temple and is just up a hill from the Goya statue that stands at the Prado's north facade. Once the stately ballroom of the 17th-century Palacio Real del Buen Retiro (Royal Retiro Palace Complex), which was destroyed during the French occupatIon of Madrid, It now contains the Museo Nacional del Siglo XIX (National Museum of the 19th Century).
The Prado collection is so vast that it is impossible to savor its wonders in a single visit. If time is limited, it is best to select a few galleries of special interest, or hire of one of the extremely knowledgeable governmentlicensed freelance guides at the main entrance. The guides are more readily available in the early morning, and their hourly fee is reasonable. Reproductions from the Prado's collection, postcards, and fine arts books are sold at the shop inside the museum. There's also a bar-restaurant on the premises.
The Villahermosa Palace Madrid
Diagonally across Plaza Canova del Castillo (the square with the Fuente de Neptuno, or Neptune Fountain) from the Prado, this splendid 1806 palace was redesigned by architect Rafael Moneo as the permanent home of 800 masterpieces (primarily paintings) initially on loan and subsequently purchased by the Spanish government from Baron Hans Heinrich ThyssenBornemisza de Kaszon (another 80 are on permanent display in Barcelona's Monestir de Pedralbes).
Formerly located in Lugano, Switzerland's Villa Favorita, the ThyssenBornemisza Collection is considered the second in importance among the world's private art collections after that of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. In the airy, modern interior galleries visitors will find an astonishing collection ranging from 13th-century Italian and Dutch primitives to the present day.
There are 16th-century paintings by Titian, Tintoretto and El Greco; 17thcentury Baroque works by masters such as Velazquez, Murillo, Caravaggio, Van Dyck, Brueghel, Rubens, and Rembrandt; 18th-century pieces from Canaletto, Tiepolo, Reynolds, and Watteau; and gems from 19thcentury artists including Sargent, Goya, Manet, Monet, Degas, Pissarro, Renoir, Cezanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, ToulouseLautrec, and Matisse. The 20th century is also well represented, by Picasso, Chagall, Gris, KIee, Mir6, Giacometti, de Kooning, O'Keeffe, Dalf, Hopper, Magritte, Bacon, Freud, Kandinsky, and Braque. In the museum there is a coffee sho, a book and souvenir shop, and a conference room.
The Royal Botanical Garden Madrid
The garden was designed in 1774 by Juan de Villanueva, the same architect who designed the Prado (whose south facade it faces). Twenty manicured acres contain some 30,000 species of plants and flowers from Spain and throughout the world. Carlos III commissioned the project as part of his urban refurbishment program. By his order, therapeutic and edicinal plants and herbs were distributed free to those in need. Between the Prado and the entrance to the garden is the small Plaza de Murillo, which has a bronze statue of the 17thcentury painter and the Cuatro Fuentes, four fountains of mythological triton cherubs playing with dolphins.
The Royal Palace Madrid
The Moors chose a strategic site overlooking the Rio Manzanares to build their alcazar, or castle fortress. It was renovated after the 11th century Christian reconquest of Madrid, and King Philip II made it the royal residence after proclaiming Madrid the capital of Spain in 1561. After the alcazar was destroyed by fire on Christmas Eve 1734, a new palace was built. It took 26 years to complete the colossus of granite and white limestone, with walls 13 feet thick, more than 2,800 rooms, 23 courtyards, and magnificently opulent interiors.
At the north side are the formal Jardines de Sabatini (Sabatini Gardens); and down the slopes on the west side is the Campo del Moro - 20 acres of forest, manicured gardens, and fountains, now a public park. The palace's main entrance is on the south side, through the tall iron gates leading into an immense courtyard called the Plaza de la Armerfa (Armory Plaza), a setting for the pageantry of royal occasions. The imposing structure at the courtyard's south end is the finally completed Catedral de la Almudena.
The palace is seen by guided tour, with different sections covered on different tours, led by Spanish and English speaking guides. The king and queen of Spain live in the Palacio de la Zarzuela on the outskirts of Madrid, but the Palacio Real still is used for official occasions and is closed to the public at those times.
The National Art Museum Madrid
This gargantuan 18th-century building was the Hospital General de San Carlos until 1965. Followmg a tremendous reconstruction project the building was. inaugurated in 1986 as a museum devoted to contemporary art, named in honor of the present queen of Spain. Since then, it has taken Its place among the world's leading contemporary art galleries and modern art museums.
The museum's collection encompasses that of the former Museo Espanol de Arte Contemporaneo (Spanish Contemporary Art Musem), whlch consists of 3,000 paintings: 9,000 drawings, and 400 sculptures, including works by Picasso, Mlro, Dah, Juan Gris, and Julio Gonzalez. A recent addition to its still-growing permanent collection is Picasso's monumental Guernica (moved here from the Prado's Cason del Buen Retiro annex.
The museum also contains the foremost contemporary art library with state of the art braille facilities, videos, photography collections, research systems, and workshops. Throughout the year, prominent exhibitIons are mounted at the museum's two landmark annexes in Parque del Buen Retlro, the Palacio de Veltizquez and Palacio de Crista.
The Parque El Buen Retiro Madrid
During the early 17th century, this was a royal retreat and the grounds of both a royal palace complex and a porcelain factory, then on the outskirts of town. Now Madrid's foremost public park, the Retiro encompasses 300 peaceful acres of forest, manicured gardens, sttuary, fountains, picnic grounds, and cafes. On a sunny Sunday afternoon, It seems all Madrid comes to jog, hug, gossip, or walk the dog around the lakeside colonnade. Art exhibitions are held at the park's Palacio de Crista I, a 19th century jewel of glass and wrought iron, and at the Palacio de Velazquez, named for its architect, not for the painter.
During July and August, as part of the city-sponsored cultural program Verano en la Villa (Sumer in. the City), classical and flamenco concerts are staged in the lardtnes Cecllio Rodriguez (Cecilio Rodriguez Gardens) near the Menendez pelayo, and the outdoor cinema (entrance on Alfonso XII) screens Spanish and foreign (including US) films (schedules change from year to year; check with the tourist office).
The Royal Monastery of Barefoot Carmelites Madrid
Behind its stark stone facade is an opulent interior filled with an astonishing wealth of artistic treasures and ornamentation bestowed by kings and noblemen. Founded in 1559 by Princess Juana of Austria, sister of Philip II, the convent welcomed disconsolate empresses, queens, princesses, and infantas, including Juana's sister Maria, Empress of Germany. The grandiose stairway is a breathtaking example of barroco madrileno, every centimeter lavishly decorated with frescoes and carved wood. Art treasures include works by EI Greco, Zurbaran, Titian, and Sanchez Coello, as well as Rubens tapestries. The windows of the upper floor afford a lovely view over the tranquil rooftop garden, where the cloistered nuns grow their vegetables as they have for centuries.
Monastery of the Incarnation Madrid
Built by order of Queen Margarita of Austria, wife of King Felipe III, this Augustinian convent was founded in 1616. Designed in the severe classical style by Juan Gomez de Mora, its fagade gives no clue to the bounteous religious and secular art treasures inside. The dazzling reliquary room displays some 1,500 religious relics contained in priceless gold and silver urns and jeweled cases. Among them is a vial of the powdered blood of the 3rdcentury St. Pantaleon, which is said to liquify every year on his feast day, July 27.
This is another active cloistered convent, so individuals and groups must be escorted by resident guides.
Car hire from Madrid Airport
Madrid Airport car hire can be booked before you fly. Car rentals at Madrid Airport are easy to pick up and drop off, and provide the easiest way to get to your accommodation in Madrid, or to travel around the surrounding regions of Spain.
The Municipal Museum Madrid
Devoted to the history of Madrid, this fine museum will enhance any visitor's awareness of the city's evolution, culture, and personality. It is filled with art, furnishings, porcelains, photographs, engravings, and meticulously detailed maps and models of the city during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The museum building, declared a national monument in 1919, was originally an 18th-century hospital, and its elaborately ornate entrance is a memorable sight; the style it's in is called Churrigueresque, named after a distinctly Spanish Baroque dynasty of architects and artists.
The Royal Tapestry Museum Madrid
Established early in the 18th century, this factory museum continues to use authentic traditional techniques in producing handmade Spanish tapestries and rugs. In addition to the permanent collection, visitors can see the workshops and watch master artisans at work weaving tapestries from cartoons by Goya and other artists, knotting luxuriant rugs, or doing intricate restoration work. Rugs and tapestries can be purchased by special order, and even can be custom made from the customer's own design.
The Army Museum Madrid
An amazing array of more than 27,000 items related to war throughout Spain's history - uniforms, armor, cannon, swords (including one belonging to EI Cid), stupendous collections of miniature soldiers, and portraits of heroines and heroes are displayed here. Housed in the vast Baroque interior of one of the two surviving buildings of the 17th century Palacio Real del Buen Retiro (Royal Retiro Palace) complex, this museum is well worth seeing.
Casa de Campo Madrid
Once the private royal hunting grounds, this 4,300 acre forested public park on the right bank of the Rio (River) Manzanares is a playground for madrilenos and visitors alike. It has a zoo, picnic and fair grounds (important trade fairs and conventions are held here), and a giant amusement park, the Parque de Atracciones Casa de Campo, with rides, open-air entertainment, and a spirited carnival atmosphere. Other highlights include a concert stadium, an all-encompassing sports complex, a small lake, and the bullpens of La Venta de Batan (for bullfight practice and previews of the bulls).
Labels: Things to do in Madrid
posted by Fay at
5:09 AM
1 Comments:
Great, take-with-you guide to Madrid that says it all.
For art history fans among your readers, here is a list of must-see famous paintings in Madrid's museums (http://www.themasterpiececards.com/famous-paintings-ebook/.
You can sort it by city and art museum, and have an itinerary of what to see in major museums in Europe and the U.S.
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