Visiting the City

Madrid the highest capital in Europe, Madrid is hot in summer and cold in winter. Famous for its multicultural style around art, music and food, Madrid celebrates its love for life around the clock. The city is divided into districts that distiguish themselves well for their pecularity.

We recommend a Tour that covers the city's three most important art galleries: the Prado, Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and Thyssen Bornemizsa, in the shape of a triangle.

Start at the Atocha railway station. If you're coming by metro, be sure to get off at the Atocha metro station and not the Atocha-Renfe station. You'll see the railway station the moment you emerge from the metro. It was built in the early 1900s and has been enlarged and improved to meet the demands of the modern high-speed (AVE) trains. There's now an elegant first-floor restaurant overlooking the carefully tended indoor garden of tropical rainforest plants in the foyer.

From the metro station, cross to the other side of the Paseo del Prado and turn left. Aristocrats during the 17th and 18th centuries liked this paseo (promenade) so much that many built their palaces along it. The Botanical Gardens are the first stop. Like many of Madrid's other great public building projects, the gardens were planted during the reign of Carlos III. They opened to the public in 1781. Visitors can see examples of over 30,000 different plants and trees from around the world. Sabatini, the architect who also designed the Palacio Real, designed the central building in the gardens.

Back on the Paseo del Prado, turn right. Continue along the tree-lined sidewalk the length of a block and you'll come to the most famous museum in Spain, the Prado. This neo-classical building was started during the reign of Carlos III in 1785, but was not completed until 1819, during the reign of Fernando VII. The museum houses more than 18,000 works of art (paintings, sculptures, etc), with an additional 12,000 in storage and 4,000 more distributed among other museums. There's a statue of Diego Velázquez, one of Spain's most famous painters, outside the front door.

Take the first street on the right (Calle Felipe IV), walk past the Jerónimos Church and you'll come to Calle Alfonso XII. The Parque del Buen Retiro lies behind the wrought-iron fence. This park is a green and peaceful oasis in the middle of the busy city and it's a great place to take a break from sightseeing. The only other major park in Madrid is the Casa de Campo. Retiro was originally the garden attached to the Jerónimos Monastery. It later became the gardens belonging to the Buen Retiro Palace, where Felipe II lived while the magnificent Escorial Monastery and Palace were being built. Most of the palace was destroyed during the French occupation of the city in 1808, leaving just a few structures standing including the former ballroom, which is now an exhibition hall. In 1868 the park, which had been used exclusively by the aristocracy, was opened to the public. Some other interesting features of the park include the Palacio de Cristal (Glass Palace), the artificial lake, the monument to Alfonso XII and the statue that represents the devil.

If you leave the park through the main gate on to the Avenida de Méjico, you'll find one of the most famous landmarks in Madrid, the Puerta de Alcalá in the Plaza de la Independencia. This was also built during the reign of Carlos III in an attempt to beautify one of the main entrances to the city. The famous gate has been a witness to many important changes in Spanish society and was made even more famous throughout the country as a result of Ana Belén's chart-topping song, La Puerta de Alcalá.

Head along the Calle de Alcalá and you'll come to the Palacio de Telecomunicaciones or Correos (Central Post Office). If you didn't know it was a post office you might mistake it for a cathedral or a palace. It's probably the most impressive post office in the world, inside and out.

You'll find another famous landmark, La Cibeles Fountain, in the middle of the Paseo del Prado. It's an 18th-century tribute to the Roman goddess of fertility and can only be reached for a closer look on special occasions when the roads are closed.

Take the underground walkway from here back onto the Calle de Alcalá to see two more monumental buildings, the Banco de España (Central Bank) and the Círculo de Bellas Artes (important cultural centre).

Turn back along the Paseo del Prado towards Atocha station and you'll soon reach the second corner of the Golden Triangle, the Thyssen Bornemizsa Museum. This former palace houses the Thyssen-Bornemisza family's art collection. It was considered one of the finest private collections in the world before being bought by the Spanish government in 1993. The 800 masterpieces are now on public display, arranged in chronological order over the different floors. Interesting temporary exhibitions are also held here.

You'll find another important city landmark that was built during the reign of Carlos III a little further down the Paseo, in the middle of Plaza Cánovas del Castillo, Neptune.

Continuing along the Paseo del Prado towards the Atocha station, turn right over Calle Atocha to the metro stop and turn right down an alleyway called Santa Isabel. You'll see the modern glass elevators moving up and down the façade of what was an 18th century hospital and is now the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the final corner of the Golden Triangle. This is Madrid’s modern art museum. Its most famous painting is Picasso's Guernica. It also shows the works of Dalí, Joan Miró and other modern Spanish painters and sculptors. Regular temporary exhibitions of contemporary art and photography take place in the centre and the art bookstore is probably the best in the city (not to be confused with the souvenir shop by the entrance).

Some other interesting buildings and sights along this route include the Congreso de los Diputados (Parliament), the Stock Exchange, the Ritz and Palace hotels, the Real Academia de la Lengua and the Casa de América (Palacio de Linares).