amadadmin

Madrid is divided into two administrative layers. The city is split into 21 distritos (districts), each governed by a junta municipal de distrito with its own office and budget. Each district is then subdivided into barrios (neighbourhoods) — 131 of them in total — which are smaller statistical and administrative units with no government of … Read more

Moncloa-Aravaca is one of Madrid’s 21 administrative districts, covering the northwest of the city from the edge of the historic centre out to the M-30 ring road and beyond. It holds the main university campus, the city’s largest park, a government palace, and a scattering of quieter residential neighbourhoods further out. Where does Moncloa-Aravaca sit … Read more

Vallecas is a large working-class area in southeastern Madrid, made up of two official city districts — Puente de Vallecas and Villa de Vallecas. It was an independent town until 1950, and it has kept a distinct identity ever since, built around migration, football, and a strong tradition of neighbourhood organising. Where is Vallecas, and … Read more

Carabanchel is one of Madrid’s 21 administrative districts, occupying a large stretch of the city’s south, south-west of the centre and across the M-30 ring road from Arganzuela. It was a working-class, largely industrial and immigrant district for most of the 20th century and is now the subject of repeated press coverage describing rising rents, … Read more

Usera is one of Madrid’s twenty-one administrative districts, on the southern bank of the Manzanares river directly opposite Arganzuela. It has, for years, recorded the highest concentration of Chinese-origin residents of any district in the city, a pattern that took shape from the 1990s onward and is now visible in its shopfronts, wholesale businesses and … Read more

Tetuán is one of Madrid’s 21 administrative districts, sitting north of Chamberí and south of Fuencarral-El Pardo, roughly between Paseo de la Castellana and the old road out to Fuencarral. It began as a separate settlement outside the city, was folded into Madrid in 1948, and today is a dense, largely residential and commercial district … Read more

Retiro is one of Madrid’s 21 administrative districts (distritos), and the park most visitors know by that name occupies only its western edge. The district itself is a wedge of largely residential city east of the park, made up of six official neighbourhoods (barrios), stretching from Paseo del Prado to the Calle O’Donnell corridor and … Read more

Arganzuela is one of Madrid’s 21 administrative districts, sitting immediately south of the historic centre along the Manzanares river. Madrid Río is not a district but a long riverside park, built largely within Arganzuela, that covers a stretch of ring road buried underground between 2005 and 2011. One is an area of the city; the … Read more