• Casa de Campo
• Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
• Chueca
• East of Sol
• El Pardo
• Gran Vía
• Malasaña
• Moncloa
• Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
• Museo del Prado
• Parque del Oeste - and Goya's Ermita frescoes
• Parque del Retiro
• Plaza de España
• Puerta de Alcalá to San Jerónimo
• Salamanca and the Paseo de la Castellana
• Sol, Plaza Mayor and Ópera: Madrid of the Austrias
• South of Plaza Mayor
• Tesoro del Dauphin and the Casón del Buen Retiro
CASA DE CAMPO
If you want to jog, play tennis, swim, picnic, go to the fairground
or see pandas, then the Casa de Campo is the place to head. This
enormous expanse of heath and scrub is in parts surprisingly wild for a
place so easily accessible from the city; other sections have been tamed
for more conventional pastimes. Far larger and more natural than the
city parks, the Casa de Campo can be reached by metro (Métro:
Batán/Lago), various buses (#33 from Príncipe Pío is the easiest), or
the cable car. The walk from the Príncipe Pío station via the Puente del
Rey isn't too strenuous either.
Throughout the park there are picnic tables and café-bars, a jogging
track with exercise posts, a municipal open-air swimming pool (daily
June-Sept 10.30am-8pm; ¬3) close to Metro Lago, tennis courts, and
rowing boats to hire on the lake (again near Metro Lago).
Sightseeing attractions include a Zoo (daily 10.30am-dusk; ¬11.20;
www.zoomadrid.com ), which is perennially popular and has an impressive
aquarium. Adjoining it is a large and recently modernized amusement park,
the Parque de Atracciones (July & Aug daily noon-midnight, Fri & Sat
till 2am; Sept-June daily noon-11pm, Sat till 1am; access only ¬4.20,
¬18.60 for a day ticket, which includes most rides, children ¬11.10;
www.parqueatracciones.es ), with its assorted restaurants and cafés;
during the summer, a variety of concerts are held in the auditorium
within. Both are easiest reached by bus (#33 and #65 from Príncipe Pío),
which will take you right to the gates; the Batán metro station is a
ten-minute walk through scrubland. Be warned that many of the main
access roads through the park have been taken over by prostitutes (banished
from the city streets by the council), and can become crowded with kerb-crawlers,
both day and night.
CENTRO DE ARTE REINA SOFIA
It is fortunate that the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Mon & Wed-Sat
10am-9pm, Sun 10am-2.30pm; ¬3, free on Sat after 2.30pm and Sun;
museoreinasofia.mcu.es ; Métro: Atocha), facing Atocha station at the
end of Paseo del Prado, keeps slightly different opening hours and days
to its neighbours. For this leading exhibition space and permanent
gallery of modern Spanish art - its centrepiece is Picasso's greatest
picture, Guernica - is another essential stop on the Madrid art circuit,
and one that really mustn't be seen after a Prado-Thyssen overdose.
The museum, a vast former hospital, is a kind of Madrid response to the
Pompidou centre in Paris. Transparent lifts shuttle visitors up the
outside of the building, whose levels feature a cinema, excellent art
book and design shops, a print, music and photographic library, a
restaurant, bar and café in the basement and a peaceful inner courtyard
garden, as well as the exhibition halls and the permanent collection of
twentieth-century art (second and fourth floors). Like the other two
great art museums it too has plans to extend - here the French architect
Jean Nouvel is supervising a scheme which will add a state-of-the-art
extension behind the main building and will increase the floor space by
55 percent
CHUECA
Plaza de Chueca (Métro: Chueca) once teetered on the verge of infamy,
owing to its popularity with drug dealers and prostitutes. However, most
of the addicts have been moved on and there is now a strong
neighbourhood feel, with kids and grannies giving a semblance of
innocence by day, and a lively gay scene springing into action at night.
It is also fronted by one of the best old-style vermut bars in the city,
Bodega Ángel Sierra , on c/Gravina at the northwest corner. The whole
area has become somewhat gentrified in recent years with the rise of a
host of stylish bars, cafés and restaurants many of which have been
established by the local gay community.
From Plaza de Chueca east to Paseo Recoletos (the beginning of the long
Paseo de la Castellana) are some of the city's most enticing streets.
Offbeat restaurants, small private art galleries, and odd corner shops
are to be found here in abundance and the c/Almirante has some of the
city's most fashionable clothes shops too. On the parallel c/Prim, ONCE
, the national association for the blind, has its headquarters. ONCE is
financed by a lottery, for which the blind work as ticket sellers, and
many come here to collect their allocation of tickets. The lottery has
become such a major money-spinner that the organization is now one of
the wealthiest businesses in Spain; oddly, perhaps, it is also the
sponsor of one of the world's top cycling teams.
To the south, the Ministry of Culture fronts the Plaza del Rey , which
is also worth a look for the other odd buildings surrounding it,
especially the Casa de las Siete Chimeneas (House of Seven Chimneys),
which is supposedly haunted by a mistress of Felipe II who disappeared
in mysterious circumstances.
To the north, on the edge of the Santa Bárbara barrio , on c/Fernando VI,
is the Sociedad de Autores (Society of Authors), housed in the only
significant modernista building in Madrid, designed by José Grasés
Riera, part of the Gaudí school. Nearby, the Museo Romántico , at c/San
Mateo 13 (Tues-Sat 9am-2.45pm, Sun 10am-1.15pm, closed Aug; ¬2.40, free
on Sun; Métro: Tribunal), has its admirers for its late-Romantic-era
furnishings, though casual visitors are unlikely to be impressed. The
Museo Municipal at c/Fuencarral 78 (Tues-Fri 9.30am-8pm, July & Aug
9.30am-2.30pm, Sat & Sun 10am-2pm; ¬1.80, free on Wed & Sun; Métro:
Tribunal) is more interesting for its models and maps of old Madrid,
which show the incredible expansion of the city in the last century. The
building itself has a superb Churrigueresque facade by Pedro de Ribera.
EAST OF SOL
The Plaza de Santa Ana/Huertas area forms a triangle, bordered to
the east by the Paseo del Prado, to the north by c/Alcalá, and along the
south by c/Atocha, with the Puerta del Sol at the western tip. The city
reached this district after extending beyond the Royal Palace and the
Plaza Mayor, so the buildings date predominantly from the nineteenth
century. Many of them have literary associations: there are streets
named after Cervantes and Lope de Vega (where one lived and the other
died), and the barrio is host to the Atheneum club, Círculo de Bellas
Artes (Fine Arts Institute), Teatro Español, and the Congreso de los
Diputados (parliament). Just to the north, there is also an important
museum, the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando .
For most visitors, though, the major attraction is that in this district
are some of the best and most beautiful bars and tascas in the city.
They are concentrated particularly around Plaza de Santa Ana, which -
following a rather seedy period - has been smartened up by the council.
EL PARDO
Franco had his principal residence at EL PARDO , a former royal
hunting ground, 9km northwest of central Madrid. A garrison still
remains at the town - where most of the Generalísmo's staff were based -
but the stigma of the place has lessened over the years, and it is now a
popular excursion for madrileños , who come here for long lunches in the
terraza restaurants, or to play tennis or swim at one of the nearby
sports centres.
The tourist focus is the Palacio del Pardo (April-Sept Mon-Sat
10.30am-6pm, Sun 9.30am-1.30pm; Oct-March Mon-Sat 10.30am-5pm, Sun
10am-1.30pm; closed occasionally for official visits; guided tours
¬4.80, free Wed for EU citizens), rebuilt by the Bourbons on the site of
a hunting lodge of Carlos V. The interior is pleasant enough, with its
chapel and theatre, a portrait of Isabel la Católica by her court
painter Juan de Flandes, and an excellent collection of tapestries, many
after the Goya cartoons in the Prado. Guides detail the uses Franco made
of the palacio , but pass over some of his stranger habits. He kept by
his bed, for instance, the mummified hand of Santa Teresa of Ávila.
Tickets to the palace are also valid for the Casita del Príncipe (closed
for refurbishment), though this cannot be entered from the gardens and
you will need to return to the main road. Like the casitas (pavilions)
at El Escorial, this was built by Juan de Villanueva, and is highly
ornate.
You can reach El Pardo by local bus (every fifteen minutes until
midnight from the bus terminal at Metro Moncloa), or by any city taxi .
GRAN VIA
The Gran Vía , Madrid's great thoroughfare, runs from Plaza de
Cibeles to Plaza de España, effectively dividing the old city to the
south from the newer parts northwards. Permanently jammed with traffic
and crowded with shoppers and sightseers, it's the commercial heart of
the city, and - if you spare the time to look up - quite a monument in
its own right, with its turn-of-the-twentieth century, palace-like banks
and offices, and the huge hand-painted posters of the cinemas. Look out,
too, for the towering Telefónica building, which was the chief
observation post for the Republican artillery during the Civil War, when
the Nationalist front line stretched across the Casa de Campo to the
west.
North of the Telefónica, c/Fuencarral heads north to the Glorieta de
Bilbao. To either side of this street are two of Madrid's most
characterful barrios : Chueca , to the east, and Malasaña , to the west.
Their chief appeal lies in an amazing concentration of bars, restaurants
and, especially, nightlife. However, there are a few reasons - bars
included - to wander around here by day.
MALASAÑA
The heart, in all senses, of Malasaña is the Plaza Dos de Mayo ,
named after the insurrection against Napoleonic forces on May 2, 1808;
the rebellion and its aftermath are depicted in a series of Goyas at the
Prado. The surrounding district bears the name of one of the martyrs of
the uprising, fifteen-year-old Manuela Malasaña, who is also
commemorated in a street (as are several other heroes of the time). On
the night of May 1 all of Madrid shuts down to honour its heroes, and
the plaza is the scene of festivities lasting well into the night.
More recently, the quarter was the focus of the movida madrileña , the "happening
scene" of the late 1970s and early 1980s. As the country relaxed after
the death of Franco and the city developed into a thoroughly modern
capital under the leadership of the late mayor, Galván, Malasaña became
the mecca of the young. Bars appeared behind every doorway, drugs were
sold openly in the streets, and there was an extraordinary atmosphere of
new-found freedom. Times have changed - and chocolate (dope) sellers are
less tolerated by residents and police alike. A good deal of renovation
has been going on in recent years, but the barrio retains a somewhat
alternative - nowadays rather grungey - feel, with its bar custom
spilling onto the streets, and an ever-lively scene in the Plaza Dos de
Mayo terrazas.
The corner of c/Barceló and c/Fuencarral has become the centre of the
litrona scene and a bit of an eyesore to boot. On Friday and Saturday
nights hundreds of under-age drinkers come here with their litronas -
litre bottles of coke or soft drinks to mix with spirits - and
calimochos - a mixture of cheap red wine and Coca-Cola - and create an
impromptu open-air terraza in the plaza only to leave the whole area
strewn with bottles and rubbish the next morning.
There are no regular sights in this quarter but the streets have an
interest of their own and some fine traditional bars - Casa Camacho at
c/San Andrés 2 is a great place for vermut . There are also some
wonderful old shop signs and architectural details, best of all the old
pharmacy on the corner of c/San Andrés and c/San Vicente Ferrer, with
its irresistible 1920s azulejo scenes depicting cures for diarrhoea,
headaches and suchlike.
MONCLOA
The wealthy suburb of Moncloa contains the Spanish prime ministerial
home and is worth a visit even if you are not using the bus terminal for
El Pardo and El Escorial. The metro will bring you out opposite the
imposing Ministry of Defence building and the impressive Arco de la
Victoria, marking Napoleon's exit from the capital. Beyond this lies the
leafy expanses of the Parque del Oeste and the campuses of the Ciudad
Universitaria . During term time, the end of each day sees the area
become one big student party, with huddles of picnickers and singing
groups under the trees. Take the Plaza de Moncloa metro exit and the
path on your right through the trees will lead you to the Mirador del
Faro (Tues-Sun: June-Aug 11am-1.45pm & 5.30-8.45pm; Sept-May 10.30am-2pm
& 5.30-8pm; ¬1.25), a futuristic 92-metre-high tower with stunning views
over the city and to the mountains beyond. Just past this, with its main
entrance on Avda. Reyes Católicos 6, the Museo de América (Tues-Sat
10am-3pm, Sun 10am-2.30pm; ¬3, free on Sat after 2pm and Sun) contains a
fine collection of artefacts, ceramics and silverware from Spain's
former colonies in Latin America. The highlight is the fabulous
Quimbayas treasure - a breathtaking collection of gold objects and
figures from the Quimbaya culture of Colombia.
MUSEO THYSSEN-BORNEMISZA
The Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza (Tues-Sun 10am-7pm; the museum has also
experimented with opening on Mondays during July & Aug, but this may not
be a permanent arrangement, so check beforehand; ¬4.80;
www.museothyssen.org ; Métro: Banco de España) occupies the old Palacio
de Villahermosa, diagonally opposite the Prado, at the end of the
Carrera de San Jerónimo. This prestigious site played a large part in
Spain's acquisition - for a knock-down $350 million in June 1993 - of
what many argue was the world's greatest private art trove after that of
the British royals: 700-odd paintings accumulated by father-and-son
German-Hungarian industrial magnates. Another trump card was Baron
Thyssen's current (fifth) wife, "Tita" Cervera, a former Miss Spain, who
steered the works to Spain against the efforts of Britain's Prince
Charles, the Swiss and German governments, the Getty foundation, and
other suitors.
A terribly kitsch portrait of Tita with a lapdog hangs in the great hall
of the museum, alongside those of her husband and King Juan Carlos and
Queen Sofía. Pass beyond, however, and you are into seriously premier-league
art: medieval to eighteenth-century on the top floor, seventeenth-century
Dutch and Rococo and Neoclassicism to Fauves and Expressionists on the
first floor, and Surrealists, Pop Art and the avant-garde on ground
level. Highlights are legion in a collection that displays an almost
stamp-collecting mentality in its examples of nearly every major artist
and movement: how the Thyssens got hold of classic works by everyone
from Duccio and Holbein, through El Greco and Caravaggio, to Schiele and
Rothko, takes your breath away.
The museum had no expense spared on its design - again in the hands of
the ubiquitous Rafael Moneo, responsible for the remodelling of Atocha
and the current works at the Prado - with stucco walls (Tita insisted on
salmon pink) and marble floors. There's a handy cafeteria and restaurant
in the basement which allows re-entry, so long as you get your hand
stamped at the exit desk. The basement is also home to a temporary
exhibition space, which has staged a number of interesting and highly
successful shows (separate entry fee of ¬3.60 and often with extended
opening hours). There's also a shop, where you can buy the first
instalments of the fifteen-volume catalogue of the baron's collection as
well as the more modest, but informative, illustrated guide to the
museum (¬10.80). Around half of the collection is now on show, either
here, or at the Monestir de Pedralbes in Barcelona, which houses around
eighty works of sacred art. Plans are afoot to extend the museum into
some of the nearby buildings to accommodate some of Tita's own
collection.
MUSEO DEL PRADO
The Museo del Prado (Tues-Sun & hols 9am-7pm; Christmas Eve and New
Years Eve 9am-2pm; closed New Year's Day, Good Friday, May 1 and
Christmas Day; 3.01, concessions 1.5; free Sat after 2.30pm & all day
Sun; ; Métro: Banco de España/Atocha) is Madrid's premier tourist
attraction, and one of the oldest and greatest collections of art in the
world. Built as a natural science museum in 1775, the Prado opened to
the public in 1819, and houses the finest works collected by Spanish
royalty - for the most part avid, discerning, and wealthy buyers - as
well as Spanish paintings gathered from other sources over the past two
centuries. There are 7000 paintings in all, of which around 1500 (still
a pretty daunting tally) are on permanent display. A controversial plan
to modernize and extend the museum (adding three nearby buildings) will
enable the Prado to double the number of works currently on show. Local
residents are opposing the proposed plan, designed by Spain's leading
architect Rafael Moneo, to construct a new glass-fronted building to
house the museum's offices in the cloisters of the church of San
Jerónimo el Real.
The museum's highlights are its Flemish collection - including almost
all of Bosch 's best work - and of course its incomparable display of
Spanish art, in particular that of Velázquez (including Las Meninas ),
Goya (including the Majas and the Black Paintings ), and El Greco .
There's also a huge section of Italian painters ( Titian , notably)
collected by Carlos V and Felipe II, both great patrons of the
Renaissance, and an excellent collection of seventeenth-century Flemish
and Dutch pictures gathered by Felipe IV. The museum has also hosted an
increasing number of temporary displays in recent years. Even in a full
day you couldn't hope to do justice to everything here, and it's perhaps
best to make a couple of more focused visits. If you are tempted to take
advantage of the long opening hours, however, there's a decent cafeteria
and restaurant in the basement.
PARQUE DEL OESTE - AND GOYA'S ERMITA FRESCOES
The Parque del Oeste stretches northwest from the Plaza de España,
following the railway tracks of Príncipe Pío up to the suburbs of
Moncloa and Ciudad Universitaria. On its south side, five minutes' walk
from the square, is the Templo de Debod (April-Sept Tues-Fri 10am-2pm &
6-8pm, Sat & Sun 10am-2pm; Oct-March Tues-Fri 9.45am-1.45pm &
4.15-6.15pm, Sat & Sun 10am-2pm; ¬1.80, free on Wed & Sun), a fourth-century
BC Egyptian temple given to Spain in recognition of the work done by
Spanish engineers on the Aswan High Dam (which inundated its original
site). Reconstructed here stone by stone, it seems comically incongruous
but provides a good concert venue nonetheless. In summer, there are
numerous terrazas in the park, while, year-round, a teleférico (April-Sept
daily 11am-2.30pm & 4.30pm-dusk; Oct-March Sat, Sun & holidays noon-2.30pm
& 4.30pm-dusk; ¬2.60 single, ¬3.60 return; Métro: Argüelles/Ventura
Rodríguez) shuttles its passengers high over the river from Paseo del
Pintor Rosales to the middle of the Casa de Campo, where there's a bar/restaurant
with pleasant views back towards the city.
Rail lines from commuter towns to the north of Madrid terminate at the
Príncipe Pío (Estación del Norte), a quietly spectacular construction of
white enamel, steel and glass which enjoyed a starring role in Warren
Beatty's film Reds . About 300m from the station along the Paseo de la
Florida is the Casa Mingo (see "Restaurants"), an institution for
chicken and cider take-outs for the Casa de Campo, and, almost alongside
it, at Glorieta de la Florida 5, the Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida
(Tues-Fri 10am-2pm & 4-8pm, closed afternoons July 13-23; Sat & Sun
10am-2pm; ¬1.80, free on Wed & Sun; Métro: Príncipe Pío). If you can, go
on Saturdays, when there are guided tours in English three times a day.
This little church on a Greek cross plan was built by an Italian, Felipe
Fontana, between 1792 and 1798, and decorated by Goya , whose frescoes
are the only reason to visit. In the dome is a depiction of a miracle
performed by St Anthony of Padua. Around it, heavenly bodies of angels
and cherubs hold back curtains to reveal the main scene: the saint
resurrecting a dead man to give evidence in favour of a prisoner falsely
accused of murder (the saint's father). Beyond this central group, Goya
created a gallery of highly realist characters - their models were court
and society figures - while for a lesser fresco of the angels adoring
the Trinity in the apse, he took prostitutes as his models. The ermita
also houses the artist's mausoleum.
PARQUE DEL RETIRO
When you get tired of sightseeing, Madrid's many parks are great
places to escape for a few hours. The most central and most popular of
them is El Retiro , a delightful mix of formal gardens and wider open
spaces. Nearby, in addition to the Prado, Thyssen-Bornemisza and Reina
Sofía galleries, are a number of the city's smaller museums , plus the
startlingly peaceful Jardines Botánicos .
The park
Originally the grounds of a royal retreat ( retiro ) and designed in the
French style, the Parque del Retiro (Métro: Retiro) has been public
property for more than a hundred years. In its 330 acres you can jog (there
is a council-sponsored track), row in the lake (you can rent boats by
the Monumento a Alfonso XII), picnic (though officially not on the grass),
have your fortune told, and - above all - promenade. The busiest day is
Sunday, when half of Madrid, spouses, in-laws and kids, turn out for the
paseo . Dressed for show, the families stroll around among the various
activities, nodding at neighbours and building up an appetite for a long
Sunday lunch.
Strolling aside, there's almost always something going on in the park,
including a good programme of concerts and ferias organized by the city
council. Concerts tend to be held in the Quiosco de Música in the north
of the park. The most popular of the fairs is the Feria del Libro (Book
Fair), held in early June, when every publisher and half the country's
bookshops set up stalls and offer a 25-percent discount on their wares.
At weekends there are puppet shows by the Puerta de Alcalá entrance
(1pm, 7pm & 8pm) and on Sundays, you can often watch groups of Peruvian
musicians or Catalans performing their counting dance, the sardana .
Travelling art exhibitions are frequently housed in the beautiful
Palacio de Velázquez (June-Sept Mon & Wed-Sat 11am-8pm, Sun 11am-4pm;
Oct-May Mon & Wed-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 10am-4pm; free) and the nearby
Palacio de Cristal (during exhibitions same hours; tel 915 746 614 for
information) and Casa de Vacas (daily 10.30am-2.30pm & 4-8pm, closed Aug;
free). Look out, too, for El Ángel Caído (Fallen Angel), the world's
only public statue to Lucifer, in the south of the park. A number of
stalls and cafés along the Salón del Estanque sell drinks, bocadillos
and pipas (sunflower seeds), and there are terrazas, too, for horchata
and granizados . The park has a safe reputation, at least by day; in the
late evening it's best not to wander alone and there are plans to close
the park completely at night because of an increase in petty vandalism.
Note also that the area east of La Chopera is known as a cruising ground
for gay prostitutes.
PLAZA DE ESPAÑA
The Plaza de España (Métro: Plaza de España), at the west end of
Gran Vía, was home, until the flurry of corporate building in the north
of Madrid, to two of the city's tallest buildings - the Torre de Madrid
, which has a top-storey bar, and the Edificio de España . These rather
stylish 1950s buildings look over an elaborate monument to Cervantes in
the middle of the square, which in turn overlooks the bewildered-looking
bronze figures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.
The plaza itself is a little on the seedy side especially at night.
However, to its north, c/Martín de los Heros is a lively place, day and
night, with three of the city's best cinemas, and behind them the Centro
Princesa , with shops, clubs, bars and a 24-hour branch of the
ubiquitous VIPS - just the place to have your film developed at 4am, or
a bite to eat before heading on to a small-hours club. Up the steps
opposite the Centro Princesa is c/Conde Duque, dominated by the massive
former barracks of the royal guard, constructed in the early eighteenth
century by Pedro de Ribera. The barracks have been turned into a dynamic
cultural centre, El Centro Cultural de Conde Duque (Tues-Sat 10am-2pm &
5.30-9pm, Sun & holidays 10.30am-2.30pm; free), which is home to the
city's collection of contemporary art; it also hosts a variety of
temporary exhibitions, and stages concerts, plays and dance as part of
the Veranos de la Villa season. Just to the east of this, the Plaza de
las Comendadoras - named after the convent that occupies one side of the
square - is a tranquil space bordered by a variety of interesting craft
shops, bars and cafés.
A block to the west is the Museo Cerralbo , c/Ventura Rodríguez 17 (Tues-Sat
9.30am-2.30pm, July closes 2pm; Sun 10am-2pm; closed Aug; ¬2.40, free on
Wed & Sun; Métro: Ventura Rodríguez), an elegant mansion endowed with
its collections by the Marqués de Cerralbo. The rooms, stuffed with
paintings, furniture, armour and artefacts, provide insights into the
lifestyle of the nineteenth-century aristocracy, though there is little
of individual note.
PUERTA DE ALCALA TO SAN JERONIMO
Leaving Parque del Retiro at the northwest corner takes you to the
Plaza de la Independencia, in the centre of which is one of the two
remaining gates from the old city walls. Built in the late eighteenth
century, the Puerta de Alcalá was the biggest in Europe at that time and,
like the bear and bush, has become one of the city's monumental emblems.
South from here, you pass the Museo de Artes Decorativas (Tues-Fri
9.30am-3pm, Sat & Sun 10am-2pm; ¬2.40, free on Sun; Métro: Banco de
España/Retiro), which has its entrance on c/Montalbán 12. The furniture
and decorations here are not very thrilling but there are some superb
azulejos and other decorative ceramics.
A couple of blocks west, in a corner of the Naval Ministry at
c/Montalbán 2, is a Museo Naval (Tues-Sun 10.30am-1.30pm, closed mid-July
to end of Aug; free; Métro: Banco de España), strong, as you might
expect, on models, charts and navigational aids from or relating to the
Spanish voyages of discovery. The army has its museum, the Museo del
Ejército , just to the south of here at c/Méndez Núñez 1 (Tues-Sun
10am-2pm; ¬0.60, free on Sat; Métro: Retiro). The museum is likely to be
moved to the Alcázar at Toledo in the future as the building features as
part of the Prado extension plans. It is a traditional display, packed
with arms and armour (including a sword of El Cid and conquistador
breastplates), and models and memorabilia of various battles, from
earliest times to the Civil War - in which Franco, here, remains the
good guy.
South again, past the Prado's Casón del Buen Retiro annexe (part of the
original Retiro palace), is San Jerónimo el Real (Mon-Fri 8am-1.30pm &
6-8pm, Sat & Sun 9am-1.30pm & 6.30-8pm, Oct-July opens one hour earlier
in the afternoon), Madrid's society church, where in 1975 Juan Carlos (like
his predecessors) was crowned. Opposite is the Real Academía Española de
la Lengua (Royal Language Academy), whose job it is to make sure that
the Spanish language is not corrupted by foreign or otherwise unsuitable
words; the results are entrusted to their official dictionary - a work
that bears virtually no relation to the Spanish you'll hear spoken on
the streets.
SALAMANCA AND THE PASEO DE LA CASTELLANA
Salamanca , the area north of the Parque del Retiro, is a smart
address for apartments and, even more so, for shops. The barrio is the
haunt of pijos - universally denigrated rich kids - and the grid of
streets between c/Goya and c/José Ortega y Gasset contains most of the
city's designer emporiums. The buildings are largely modern and
undistinguished, though there is a scattering of museums and galleries
that might tempt you up here, in particular the Lázaro Galdiano, the
pick of Madrid's smaller museums.
Taking the area from south to north, the first point of interest is
Plaza de Colón (Métro: Colón), endowed at street level with a statue of
Columbus (Cristóbal Colón) and some huge stone blocks arranged as a
megalithic monument to the discovery of the Americas. Below it is the
1970s Centro Cultural Villa de Madrid , which is still a good place for
film and theatre and occasional exhibitions (Tues-Sat 10am-9pm Sat & Sun
10am-2pm). Across the square, if your taste runs to tableaux of
matadores being gored, or vain attempts to recognize Juan Carlos, there
is diversion at Paseo de Recoletos 41 in the Museo de Cera (Mon-Fri
10.30am-2.30pm & 4.30-8.30pm, Sat & Sun 10.30am-8.30pm; ¬9; Métro:
Colón), a pretty lamentable wax museum.
Off the square, too, with its entrance at c/Serrano 13, is the Museo
Arqueológico Nacional (Tues-Sat 9.30am-8.30pm, closes 6.30pm in July &
Aug; Sun 9.30am-2.30pm; ¬3, free Sat 2.30-8.30pm & Sun; Métro: Serrano).
As the national collection, this has some impressive pieces, among them
the celebrated Celto-Iberian busts known as La Dama de Elche and La Dama
de Baza , and a wonderfully rich hoard of Visigothic treasures found at
Toledo. The exhibition, however, is very old-fashioned and rooms are
often closed for somnolent rearrangement, sometimes at very short notice.
In the gardens, downstairs to the left of the main entrance, is a
reconstruction of the Altamira Caves, with their prehistoric wall
paintings.
The Museo Lázaro Galdiano (Tues-Sun 10am-2pm, July & Sept guided tours
in the evenings 7-11pm, closed Aug; ¬3, free Sat; www.flg.es ; Métro:
Gregorio Marañon/Rubén Darío; closed for the time being) is some way
north at c/Serrano 122. This former private collection was given to the
state by José Galdiano in 1948 and spreads over the four floors and 37
rooms of his former home. It is a vast jumble of art works, with some
very dodgy attributions, but includes some really exquisite and valuable
pieces. Among painters represented are El Greco, Bosch, Gerard David,
Dürer and Rembrandt, as well as a host of Spanish artists, including
Berruguete, Murillo, Zurbarán, Velázquez and Goya. Other exhibits
include a collection of clocks and watches, many of them once owned by
Carlos V.
Not far to the west of here, across the Paseo de la Castellana, is
another enjoyable gallery, the Museo Sorolla , c/General Martínez Campos
37 (Tues-Sat 10am-3pm, July & Aug closes 2.30pm; Sun 10am-2pm; ¬2.40,
free Sun; Métro: Gregorio Marañon/Iglesia). This is a large collection
of work by the painter Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923), displayed in his old
home and studio; the best paintings are striking, impressionistic plays
on light and texture. The house itself, with its cool and shady
Andalucian-style courtyard and gardens, is worth the visit alone.
A little to the north just off the Paseo de la Castellana on c/José
Gutiérrez Abascal is the Museo de Ciencias Naturales , or Natural
History Museum (Tues-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat 10am-8pm, Sun 10am-2.30pm; ¬2.40;
Métro: Nuevos Ministerios), one of the most interactive of the
traditional museums in the city centre, with audiovisual displays on the
evolution of life on earth and plenty of dinosaur exhibits. Further
north along the Paseo de la Castellana, you reach the Zona Azca (Métro:
Nuevos Ministerios/Santiago Bernabéu), one of Madrid's newest business
quarters, with its tallest skyscraper - the 43-storey Torre Picasso (designed
by Minori Yamasaki) - and corporate headquarters. Just beyond it, and
easily the most famous sight up here, is the magnificent Santiago
Bernabéu football stadium, home of Real Madrid.
SOL, PLAZA MAYOR AND OPERA: MADRID OF THE AUSTRIAS
Madrid de los Austrias - Habsburg Madrid - was a mix of formal
planning, at its most impressive in the expansive and theatrical Plaza
Mayor, and areas of shanty-town development, knocked up as the new
capital gained an urban population. The central area of old Madrid still
reflects both characteristics, with its twisting grid of streets,
alleyways and steps, and its Flemish-inspired architecture of red brick
and grey stone, slate-tiled towers, and Renaissance doorways.
SOUTH OF PLAZA MAYOR
The areas south of Plaza Mayor have traditionally been tough,
working-class districts, with tenement buildings thrown up to
accommodate the huge expansion of the population in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. In many places these old houses survive, huddled
together in narrow streets, but the character of La Latina and Lavapiés
has changed as their inhabitants, and the districts themselves, have
become younger and more fashionable. The streets of Cava Baja and Cava
Alta, for example, in La Latina, include some of the city's most
fashionable bars and restaurants. These are attractive barrios to
explore, particularly during the Sunday morning flea market, El Rastro ,
which takes place along and around the Ribera de Curtidores (Métro: La
Latina or Tirso de Molina).
TESORO DEL DAUPHIN AND THE CASON DEL BUEN RETIRO
The Prado's basement houses the Tesoro del Dauphin (Treasure of the
Dauphin), a display of part of the collection of jewels that belonged to
the Grand Dauphin Louis, son of Louis XIV and father of Felipe V,
Spain's first Bourbon king. The collection includes goblets, cups, trays,
glasses and other pieces richly decorated with rubies, emeralds,
diamonds, lapis lazuli and other precious stones.
Just east of the Prado is the Casón del Buen Retiro (currently
undergoing restoration) which used to be a dance hall for the palace of
Felipe IV, but is now devoted to nineteenth-century Spanish art. It is
included in the entrance ticket to the main museum but, considering the
riches which have gone before, is not of compelling interest.
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