Madrid
Welcome to one of the world's premier art galleries. More than 7000 paintings are held in the Museo del Prado’s collection (of which only around 1500 are…
Must-see attractions in Madrid
Madrid
Home to Picasso’s Guernica, arguably Spain’s most famous artwork, the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía is Madrid’s premier collection of contemporary art.
Madrid
The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum is one of the three points composing Madrid’s Golden Triangle of Art along the Paseo del Prado (Art Walk), together with the…
Basílica de San Francisco El Grande
La Latina & Lavapiés
Crowning Madrid’s oldest neighborhood of La Latina is an architectural and visual masterpiece that is the Basílica de San Francisco el Grande (Basilica of…
Salamanca
One of Spain’s most atmospheric arenas, the Plaza de Toros Las Ventas has hosted everything from Beatles concerts to motocross competitions during its…
Madrid
Few people would ever guess that a 2200-year-old Egyptian temple exists in the center of Madrid. Yet the Templo de Debod is in no way a Vegas-style…
Salamanca
This imposing early-20th-century Italianate stone mansion, set discreetly back from the street, belonged to Don José Lázaro Galdiano (1862–1947), a…
Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
Madrid
The Real Academia de Bellas Artes, Madrid’s ‘other’ art gallery, has for centuries played a pivotal role in the artistic life of the city. As the royal…
Madrid
Madrid's grand central square, a rare but expansive opening in the tightly packed streets of central Madrid, is one of the prettiest open spaces in Spain,…
Madrid
Spain's jewel-box Palacio Real is used only occasionally for royal ceremonies; the royal family moved to the modest Palacio de la Zarzuela years ago.
La Latina & Lavapiés
A Sunday morning at El Rastro flea market, Europe's largest, is a Madrid institution. You could easily spend the entire morning inching your way down the…
Madrid
Plaza de Santa Ana is a delightful confluence of elegant architecture and irresistible energy. It presides over the upper reaches of the Barrio de las…
Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida
Madrid
The frescoed ceilings of the restored Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida are one of Madrid's most surprising secrets. The southern of the two small…
Madrid
Football fans and budding Madridistas (Real Madrid supporters) will want to make a pilgrimage to the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, a temple to all that’s…
Madrid
For some of Madrid’s best views, take the lift to the 7th floor of the ‘Fine Arts Circle’. You can almost reach out and touch the glorious dome of the…
Madrid
Among the more interesting buildings along Gran Vía is the stunning, French-designed Edificio Metrópolis, built in 1905, which marks the southern end of…
Madrid
The official centre point of Spain is a gracious, crowded hemisphere of elegant facades. It is, above all, a crossroads: people here are forever heading…
Madrid
This amusement park in the Casa de Campo has the usual collection of high-adrenaline rides, shows for the kids and kitsch at every turn. In the Zona de…
Madrid
This graceful square is one central Madrid's most beautiful, home as it is to a royal palace that once had aspirations to be the Spanish Versailles,…
Madrid
Madrid’s zoo, in the Casa de Campo, is a fairly standard European city zoo home to about 3000 animals. Exhibits range from white Siberian tigers to mambas…
Madrid
Estación de Chamberí, the long-lost ghost station of Madrid's metro, is now a museum piece that recreates the era of the station’s inauguration in 1919…
Madrid
Backing onto Plaza de Oriente, Madrid’s signature opera house took on its present neoclassical form in 1997 although, viewed from Plaza de Isabel II,
Madrid
Due north of Plaza Mayor, San Ginés is one of Madrid’s oldest churches: it has been here in one form or another since at least the 14th century. What you…
Chueca
This intriguing museum is devoted to the Romantic period of the 19th century. It houses a minor treasure trove of mostly 19th-century paintings, furniture…
Madrid
You don’t have to be a trainspotter to enjoy this railway museum – you’ll see as many kids as anoraks – but it helps. Housed in the disused 1880s Estación…
Ateneo Científico, Literario y Artístico de Madrid
Madrid
This venerable club of learned types was founded in 1821, although the building took on its present form in 1884. Its library prompted Benito Pérez Galdós…
Convento de las Descalzas Reales
Madrid
The grim plateresque walls of the Convento de las Descalzas Reales offer no hint that behind the facade lies a sumptuous stronghold of the faith. The…
Sociedad General de Autores y Editores
Chueca
This swirling, melting wedding cake of a building is as close as Madrid comes to the work of Antoni Gaudí, which so illuminates Barcelona. It’s a joyously…
Madrid
The main building on the Plaza de la Puerta del Sol houses the regional government of the Comunidad de Madrid. The Casa de Correos was built as the city’s…
Madrid
One of the world’s most horizontal cable cars (it never hangs more than 40m above the ground), the Teleférico putters out from the slopes of Parque del…
La Latina & Lavapiés
This contemporary-arts centre is a stunning multipurpose space south of the centre. Occupying the converted buildings of the old Arganzuela livestock…
Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Almudena
Madrid
Paris has Notre Dame and Rome has St Peter’s Basilica. In fact, almost every European city of stature has its signature cathedral, a standout monument to…
La Latina & Lavapiés
Around the back of the Iglesia de San Andrés, the delightful Plaza de la Paja slopes down into the tangle of lanes that once made up Madrid's Muslim…
Madrid
Sometimes called the ‘lungs of Madrid’, this 17-sq-km stand of greenery stretches west of the Río Manzanares. There are prettier and more central parks in…
Madrid
The intimate Plaza de la Villa is one of Madrid’s prettiest. Enclosed on three sides by wonderfully preserved examples of 17th-century barroco madrileño …
Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales
Madrid
The Museum of Natural Sciences is a favourite for families, with permanent exhibitions including dinosaur skeletons, rocks and minerals, and fossils of…
Museo Nacional de Antropología
Madrid
The National Anthropology Museum houses collections of clothing, images and everyday objects from indigenous cultures in Africa, Asia and the Americas…
Madrid
Hidden among the trees south of Parque del Buen Retiro's lake is the Palacio de Cristal. Built in 1887, it's a magnificent metal-and-glass structure and…
Madrid
The Plaza de la Puerta del Sol owes its present appearance in part to the Bourbon king Carlos III (r 1759–88), whose equestrian statue (complete with his…