MADRID
Madrid doesn´t lead the world in any single aspect –architecture, arts, nightlife, food, fashion, music, the friendliness of its people, or the purity of its air, but bundle all these things together and there are few places to rival it. Its appeal creeps up on you, and once you are bitten, that´s it.
Madrid
conveys to the world its energy, growth, diversity, freedom, passion and
friendliness.
"Yet when you get to know it [Madrid], it is the most Spanish of all cities, the best to live in, the finest people, month in and month out the finest climate", wrote by Ernest Hemingway in 'Death In The Afternoon'
The apartment is situated at the heart of BARRIO DE LAS LETRAS. Bounded by the Paseo del Prado, Calle Atocha, Carrera de San Jerónimo and Calle Carretas is a challenge to our perception ability. At every step or movement we should be careful not to be overlooked by countless historical and literary winks that appear to us. Whether in the form of informational plaques or inscriptions on the ground, one gets transported without too much effort to another era. Letras is possibly the best preserved historic neighborhood in Madrid. To get an idea of how this district became what it is today, we need to go back to the 17th century when the area was a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Madrid. It no doubt made a striking contrast with the courtiers' district just north, around Carrera San Jerónimo, that is where aristocrats enjoyed hunting, dancing and drinking chocolate in their recreational villas.
Specifically the Spanish Golden Age, the seventeenth century, Cervantes, Quevedo, Lope de Vega and Góngora walked and lived in these narrow streets. Their skills in the literary arts excelled in a neighbourhood with an enormous social life, where there were popular comedy theatres and ‘mentideros’. In a society much given to gossip, the intelligence of these brilliant authors, pen in hand, gave to this neighborhood a bohemian air that is still present nowadays. There was some serious partying going on, and it often started out at the mentidero on Leon street, a popular artists' hangout. And, since the writers loved nothing better than to bad-mouth each other,these cobble-stoned streets have witnessed all sort of drama.
Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, lived in four different houses in this neighborhood and died on León street on a house that has been demolished, but a commemorative plaque marks the site. Several other plaques pay tribute to him, including one on Atocha street where the printer that published Don Quixote still stands, and another on the Convent of the Trinitarias, where the author was buried. Despite Don Miguel's accomplishments, the vicious Lope de Vega often took cheap shots at Cervantes, but time and its paradoxes put each in his place. Lope's house(now a great museum) in on none other than Cervantes street.
Valle Inclán, Quevedo, Góngora, they all would stroll down these streets, quarreling and buying books at Cuesta de Moyano (south of the botanical garden) where we now retrace the footsteps of Azorín, Baroja, Galdós and even Hemingway, in search of out-of-print books. They may have browsed the antique shops around Prado street. Perhaps they visited St Sebastian church on Atocha street where Bécquer, Larra and Zorrilla all got married. When we sit in its squares and explore the neighborhood, peeking inside the Academy of History or the Ateneo, it's easy to guess how the neighborhood got its peculiar name 'Letras' that literally means letters and it refers to the Arts in general.
A neighborhood whose current existence turns around the delicious Plaza de Santa Ana, with its terraces, its elegant hotel Victoria front, the Teatro Español and the monuments of Calderón de la Barca and García Lorca.
Calle Príncipe links two of the most beautiful squares of Madrid, Plaza de Canalejas and Plaza de Santa Ana with two exquisite venues that hold loosely over the years. Calle Principe is forever destined to join a path full of history, a delightful walk, this century-old street has seen the Barrio de las Letras and Madrid’s swordsmen and writers’ society flourishing and becoming one of the most elegant and liveliest street of the Court. In fact, it held the Corral de la Pacheca and the Corral del Principe, where nowadays is the Teatro Español. Both were authentic social hotbeds of that time.
Continuing the walk along Plaza Santa Ana to Plaza del Angel in San Sebastián 2 street we find the Palace of the count of Tepa. I find it a curious but unknown place because it shows spectacular remains of the ‘Viaje de Agua de La Castellana”.
"Yet when you get to know it [Madrid], it is the most Spanish of all cities, the best to live in, the finest people, month in and month out the finest climate", wrote by Ernest Hemingway in 'Death In The Afternoon'
The apartment is situated at the heart of BARRIO DE LAS LETRAS. Bounded by the Paseo del Prado, Calle Atocha, Carrera de San Jerónimo and Calle Carretas is a challenge to our perception ability. At every step or movement we should be careful not to be overlooked by countless historical and literary winks that appear to us. Whether in the form of informational plaques or inscriptions on the ground, one gets transported without too much effort to another era. Letras is possibly the best preserved historic neighborhood in Madrid. To get an idea of how this district became what it is today, we need to go back to the 17th century when the area was a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Madrid. It no doubt made a striking contrast with the courtiers' district just north, around Carrera San Jerónimo, that is where aristocrats enjoyed hunting, dancing and drinking chocolate in their recreational villas.
Specifically the Spanish Golden Age, the seventeenth century, Cervantes, Quevedo, Lope de Vega and Góngora walked and lived in these narrow streets. Their skills in the literary arts excelled in a neighbourhood with an enormous social life, where there were popular comedy theatres and ‘mentideros’. In a society much given to gossip, the intelligence of these brilliant authors, pen in hand, gave to this neighborhood a bohemian air that is still present nowadays. There was some serious partying going on, and it often started out at the mentidero on Leon street, a popular artists' hangout. And, since the writers loved nothing better than to bad-mouth each other,these cobble-stoned streets have witnessed all sort of drama.
Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, lived in four different houses in this neighborhood and died on León street on a house that has been demolished, but a commemorative plaque marks the site. Several other plaques pay tribute to him, including one on Atocha street where the printer that published Don Quixote still stands, and another on the Convent of the Trinitarias, where the author was buried. Despite Don Miguel's accomplishments, the vicious Lope de Vega often took cheap shots at Cervantes, but time and its paradoxes put each in his place. Lope's house(now a great museum) in on none other than Cervantes street.
Valle Inclán, Quevedo, Góngora, they all would stroll down these streets, quarreling and buying books at Cuesta de Moyano (south of the botanical garden) where we now retrace the footsteps of Azorín, Baroja, Galdós and even Hemingway, in search of out-of-print books. They may have browsed the antique shops around Prado street. Perhaps they visited St Sebastian church on Atocha street where Bécquer, Larra and Zorrilla all got married. When we sit in its squares and explore the neighborhood, peeking inside the Academy of History or the Ateneo, it's easy to guess how the neighborhood got its peculiar name 'Letras' that literally means letters and it refers to the Arts in general.
A neighborhood whose current existence turns around the delicious Plaza de Santa Ana, with its terraces, its elegant hotel Victoria front, the Teatro Español and the monuments of Calderón de la Barca and García Lorca.
Calle Príncipe links two of the most beautiful squares of Madrid, Plaza de Canalejas and Plaza de Santa Ana with two exquisite venues that hold loosely over the years. Calle Principe is forever destined to join a path full of history, a delightful walk, this century-old street has seen the Barrio de las Letras and Madrid’s swordsmen and writers’ society flourishing and becoming one of the most elegant and liveliest street of the Court. In fact, it held the Corral de la Pacheca and the Corral del Principe, where nowadays is the Teatro Español. Both were authentic social hotbeds of that time.
Continuing the walk along Plaza Santa Ana to Plaza del Angel in San Sebastián 2 street we find the Palace of the count of Tepa. I find it a curious but unknown place because it shows spectacular remains of the ‘Viaje de Agua de La Castellana”.
The Palace was built in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth, stone and brick
around two courtyards, in Neoclassical style. It has recently been converted
into a luxurious five-star hotel. It was during its rehabilitation that the
relevant archaeological work was carried out. It has been a pleasant surprise to discover
the existence of these remains under the foundations of the old palace and how
they have been preserved in the new hotel under a glass floor on which we walk
and contemplate all found elements (just behind the hotel reception).
Since the founding
of Madrid in the second half of the ninth century until 1851 when the supply
water of the Lozoya River was inaugurated by the Canal de Isabel II, the town
was supplied through a network of underground galleries called ‘qanats’ or ‘viajes
de agua’ (water trips), of Arab origin, which provided captured
groundwater. A perfect network that
improved and spread as the same time as the city and its needs.
The name derives
from the Arabic Mayrit (later Madrid) "where the mayra (water pipes)
abound" reflecting the importance of these systems had since the founding
of the city and some have been preserved to this day.
San Sebastian’s church, is a national monument, not with treasured works of art, but for its impressive archive because it was the church where all Barrio de las Letras writers, composers and artists were members of its brotherhood.
In the old church cemetery were buried famous writers such as Lope de Vega (there is a plaque inside the church that
remembers it)is known as "comedian graveyard". Closed the cemetery and transferred
the bodies to the church In 1889, a current flower garden was created. It is a place of great charm carefully
preserved with ancient gates of fine iron columns and glass, with wooden roof,
an original source. San Sebastian’s church, is a national monument, not with treasured works of art, but for its impressive archive because it was the church where all Barrio de las Letras writers, composers and artists were members of its brotherhood.
Matute square more like a short street or passage, in number 10 we find a real jewel, a cozy modernist building where all eyes turn, Pérez Villamil built it between 1906 and
1908, is the house with a rounded facade pristine lines and arabesques and a
portal with lanterns and railings. This style flourished in the beginning of
the XX century and it is connected to the development of the cities and the
middle class. Innovative materials of this style were iron and glass. It wants
to remind us of nature and therefore we find many plants and flowers in the
decoration of the buildings. It was important that the different buildings
could be distinguished by its original decorations.
There
are not many modernist buildings In Madrid, just a very few, Longoria Palace is
the most notable example of modernist architecture in Madrid, it is located in
Chueca neighbourhood. In contrast to Madrid,
Barcelona offers beautiful examples of this type of architecture.
Very near to the apartment
Emblematic spaces such as The
Plaza Mayor and Plaza de Oriente squares, the National Library, the Royal
Palace and the church of Los Jerónimos.
Puerta del Sol (sun gate) - Madrid's centrally located plaza - which is always busy with buskers and locals shopping for mantillas and hats at the old-fashioned stores.
Puerta del Sol (sun gate) - Madrid's centrally located plaza - which is always busy with buskers and locals shopping for mantillas and hats at the old-fashioned stores.
This site, "kilometre zero" from which different historical events, all radial roads out of Madrid start, has witnessed many including the Esquilache riot in 1766, the resistance against
Napoleon's troops on 2nd May 1808 and the coronation of Fernando VII in 1812.
Casa de Correos is the oldest building, its construction was firstly iniciated in 1760 by the architect Ventura Rodriguez during the reign of Fernando VI in order to construct a building that was central mail service of the court, and continued during the reign of Carlos III.
The main renovation in Puerta del Sol had to wait until the reign of Isabel II in the latter half of the nineteenth century, promoted by liberals who had emigrated to Europe during the absolutist reign of Fernando VII and that had returned to Spain drawn by liberal political ideas and desires of change. A new road network was designed to consolidate security and to encourage economic activity taking Puerta del Sol as the point Km0 to which all routes to Madrid were measured.
Casa de Correos is the oldest building, its construction was firstly iniciated in 1760 by the architect Ventura Rodriguez during the reign of Fernando VI in order to construct a building that was central mail service of the court, and continued during the reign of Carlos III.
The most brilliant times of the city of Madrid occurred under
the reign of Carlos III who was known as "the best mayor of
Madrid".
The works for the construction of Casa de
Correos together with all the expenses aimed to improve the city of Madrid
during this period were financed by its people, this was the reason of the
rising prices of bread, and other staples, generating a great discontent in
Madrid that burst out in march 1776 ‘The Esquilache Riot’.The main renovation in Puerta del Sol had to wait until the reign of Isabel II in the latter half of the nineteenth century, promoted by liberals who had emigrated to Europe during the absolutist reign of Fernando VII and that had returned to Spain drawn by liberal political ideas and desires of change. A new road network was designed to consolidate security and to encourage economic activity taking Puerta del Sol as the point Km0 to which all routes to Madrid were measured.
Plaza Mayor
Has been a focal point of Madrid life for centuries. The square’s red brick buildings reflect one of the city´s prevailing architectural styles, one that dates back to the 16th century: Herrerian, a blend of angular austerity and Barroque grandiosity. It is a wide, beautiful space. It's a short walk to the Plaza de Oriente, a vast 19th-century square which houses the Teatro Real, the place for opera or ballet performances, and the Palacio Real, the ostentatious 18th-century Royal Palace inhabited until 1931 by the Spanish royal family.
Has been a focal point of Madrid life for centuries. The square’s red brick buildings reflect one of the city´s prevailing architectural styles, one that dates back to the 16th century: Herrerian, a blend of angular austerity and Barroque grandiosity. It is a wide, beautiful space. It's a short walk to the Plaza de Oriente, a vast 19th-century square which houses the Teatro Real, the place for opera or ballet performances, and the Palacio Real, the ostentatious 18th-century Royal Palace inhabited until 1931 by the Spanish royal family.
Retiro Park, just in the center of Madrid, the green heart of the city, it is the first biggest park of Madrid city. It has 1.4 km2 (350 acres) at the edge of the city center. The park belonged to the Spanish Monarchy until the late 19th century, when it became a public park. It's a magnificent park, filled with beautiful sculpture and monuments, galleries, the Velázquez and Glass palaces, a peaceful lake and host to a variety of events. Puppets are vey popular in Retiro Park and beckons children every weekend.
Cybeles Cultural Center for the People of Madrid, but some people called it 5C’s regarding the acronym of the name in Spanish or just “Centro Centro”. It was open in order to create a space around contemporary art and new art expressions –like video art or digital art. Also, it acts as a community center for the downtown area; among its services are reading areas with free newspapers, a library, a cafeteria, a restaurant..m. Reservation is required.
This institution is located in the Cybele’s Palace, just in
front of the famous fountain, also called Palace of Telecommunication.
The building was designed in 1904 by Antonio Palacios and Joaquín Otamendi
to be the headquarters of the Spanish Mail Service (Correos) and the
National Phone Company (Telefónica). After the privatization of both companies
the building returned to Madrid Community’s hands and this new
incredible project began. The jewel in the crown of the Palacio de Cibeles is
the terrace over the historic center of Madrid.
MUSEUMS
If you can't face the
crowds at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, with its eclectic but overwhelming
collection of 17th-century Dutch masters, pop art and abstract works, at least
go to the Prado to see some of the world's greatest paintings; Hieronymus
Bosch's surreal triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights, Albrecht Dürer's Self
Portrait, Francisco de Goya's Majas, Diego Velázquez's Las Meninas and El
Greco's modernistic Christ in the Garden of Olives still have the power to
shock in their timeless canvasses.
Reina Sofía the museum is located in the old General Hospital built by the architect Sabatini under the orders of Charles III of Spain, and was designated a Historic-Artistic Monument in 1977. It is home to one of the world’s most highly-prized permanent collections. The museum’s collections come from the old Spanish Museum of Contemporary Art collections and acquisitions made by the museum itself, in addition to works bequeathed by the Catalan artists Salvador Dalí and Joan Miró. Picasso's "Guernica" is one of the most important works exhibited here.
Museo Sorolla, this is one of my favourites.
Museo arqueológico, contains
a wealth of exhibits from Spain and beyond, ranging in date from prehistoric to
Renaissance times.
The Museum of the Americas (Museo de América) houses an
impressive collection mostly from South and Central America, but also from the
northern part of the continent. The displays place special emphasis on
Pre-Columbian art, archaeology and ways of life, as well as the scientific
advancements in the west which led to Europeans reaching the Americas.
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