Historic Cities · Spain
Madrid through the ages
Madrid is the capital and most populous city of Spain. It had a population of over 3.4 million in the city proper in 2025, and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.8 million. Madrid is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), after Berlin, and its metropolitan area is the second-largest in the EU, after Paris.
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Madrid in 1630
Habsburg Madrid
Madrid in 1630 is the bustling, irregular capital of a far‑flung monarchy, still a compact walled town clustered around the royal Alcázar and the Plaza Mayor. The walk moves from the river's low meadows through city gates and theatre corrals to the alleys of merchants and to the open lands where a great royal retreat will soon be set out.
A low, compact skyline of tiled roofs, church towers and the squat masonry bulk of the Alcázar rises within stout medieval walls; pale plaster and exposed timber frame façades cluster along narrow, dusty streets. Public squares are framed by wooden‑gallery balconies and arcaded market façades, the river plain and distant scrubby hills give a low horizon, and the whole city gleams under a high, dry Iberian light.
The walk — 22 streets, squares and views
Manzanares Approach → Puente de Segovia → Puerta de Segovia → Calle de Segovia → Plaza de la Villa → Plaza Mayor → Casa de la Panadería → Calle Mayor → Royal Alcázar → Cuesta de la Vega → …
Step inside — 12 interiors
Puerta de Segovia Guardroom · Council Hall of the Villa · High Balcony of Plaza Mayor · Bakery Guild Chamber · Alcázar Painter's Studio · Corral de la Cruz Stage · Corral del Príncipe Pit · Market Hall of La Cebada · Leatherworker's Workshop · Main Nave of Atocha · Mentidero Tavern Backroom · Hall of Realms
Planned from the Wikipedia record: History of Madrid.
Madrid in 1800
Goya's Madrid
Madrid in 1800 is a compact Bourbon capital of tile roofs, narrow lanes and new neoclassical monuments, still shaped by Charles III's reforms and the court's presence. The walk traces river crossings, the San Isidro meadow, the new Prado and botanical promenade, palace approaches and busy markets where majos and majas animate the streets.
The skyline is low and domestic: red clay tile roofs, angled chimneys and church towers rising above dense, irregular medieval blocks within the old walls, while the Paseo del Prado offers a wide, tree‑lined ribbon of gravel, stone balustrades and nascent urban sculptures. Streets are narrow, shuttered and ochre‑washed, punctuated by granite bridges, the pale stone of new neoclassical gates and fountains, and gardens of the Buen Retiro and the Royal Botanical that give the city visible pockets of green.
The walk — 25 streets, squares and views
Casa de Campo Hillside → Puente de Segovia → Puerta de Segovia → Pradera de San Isidro → Paseo de la Florida → San Antonio de la Florida (exterior) → Monteleón Barracks → Campo del Moro → Plaza de la Armería → Palacio Real (exterior) → …
Step inside — 12 interiors
Hermitage Worship Chamber · Low Candlelit Botillería · Frescoed Chapel Dome · Barracks Guard Room · Royal Armory Display Hall · Royal Stair and Antechamber · Decorated Civic Salon · Painter's Studio and Working Room · Covered Meat Market Hall · Great Greenhouse Conservatory · Colonnaded Central Hall · Main Weaving Hall
Planned from the Wikipedia record: History of Madrid.
Madrid in 1925
Silver Age Madrid
Madrid in 1925 is a city stretching its nineteenth-century grid into a new modernity: the Gran Vía cleaves through older streets, the Metro hums beneath, and the Residencia de Estudiantes gathers poets and filmmakers. Walkers will pass emerging skyscrapers, crowded cafés where tertulias meet, theatres and the familiar plazas and parks of the historic city.
The skyline is a low city of red-tiled roofs interrupted by the new vertical gestures of Gran Vía: early steel-and-concrete framed buildings and the rising skeleton of the Telefónica. Streets are paved and narrow in the old core, broader boulevards lined with plane trees. Horse-drawn carts, double-decker trams and black-clad pedestrians move beneath gas and electric street lamps at varied scale.
The walk — 23 streets, squares and views
Casa de Campo View → Puerta de Toledo → Ribera de Curtidores → Plaza Mayor → Puerta del Sol → Calle del Carmen → Plaza del Callao → Gran Vía by Teatro Eslava → Edificio Telefónica → Gran Vía Cinema Facades → …
Step inside — 14 interiors
Panadería Hall · Popular Screening Hall · Theatre Foyer · Exchange Floor · Cinema Palace Auditorium · Ateneo Salon · Main Banking Hall · Postal Sorting Hall · Glass Palace Interior · Velázquez Gallery · Iron Concourse · Students' Common Room · Tertulia Salon · Main Auditorium
Planned from the Wikipedia record: History of Madrid.
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