Madrid, explained
Las Ventas is Madrid’s principal bullring, formally the Plaza de Toros Monumental de Las Ventas, and one of the largest bullfighting venues in the world. What makes it architecturally unusual is its neo-Mudéjar style — a brick-and-ceramic revival of medieval Islamic-influenced building traditions, applied at a scale almost nowhere else in the city. What exactly … Read more
The Círculo de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Circle) is a private, non-profit cultural association founded in Madrid in 1880 to promote the arts, literature, music and cinema. It occupies a large 1920s building on Calle de Alcalá, near Gran Vía, where it runs exhibition galleries, a theatre, a cinema, a library and a rooftop terrace … Read more
Gran Vía is a 1.3-kilometre avenue driven through the dense centre of Madrid between 1910 and 1929, connecting Calle de Alcalá near Plaza de Cibeles to Plaza de España. It was not widened from an existing street — it was cut as a new route straight across an existing grid of narrow medieval and 16th-century … Read more
The Templo de Debod is a genuine ancient Egyptian temple, built around the 2nd century BC near Aswan, dismantled stone by stone in the 1960s, and rebuilt in Madrid’s Parque del Oeste. Egypt gave it to Spain in 1968, in thanks for Spanish engineering help during the international rescue of Nubian monuments threatened by the … Read more
Plaza de Cibeles is a large traffic roundabout and public square at the meeting point of Paseo del Prado, Paseo de Recoletos, and Calle de Alcalá, marking the border between the Retiro, Salamanca, and Centro districts. At its centre stands an 18th-century marble fountain; behind it rises a large early 20th-century palace that now serves … Read more
The Puerta de Alcalá is a freestanding stone gate at Plaza de la Independencia, on the eastern edge of Madrid’s centre, next to Retiro Park. It was completed in 1778 as a ceremonial entrance to the city, commissioned by King Carlos III and designed by the Italian architect Francesco Sabatini. It no longer functions as … Read more
The Almudena Cathedral (Catedral de Santa María la Real de la Almudena) is Madrid’s Catholic cathedral, standing opposite the Royal Palace. It looks modern because it largely is: construction ran from 1883 to 1993, more than a century, so most of what a visitor sees dates from the 20th century rather than the medieval or … Read more
The Royal Palace of Madrid (Palacio Real de Madrid) is the official residence of the Spanish monarchy, built on the site of a former Muslim fortress and completed in the 18th century. It is not the King’s home — that is elsewhere — but a state building open to the public, holding the State Rooms, … Read more
Puerta del Sol is the square at the geographic and symbolic centre of Madrid, where ten streets converge in front of a former post office building. Kilometre Zero is the marker set into the pavement outside that building, the fixed point from which distances on Spain’s national road network are officially measured. What is Puerta … Read more
What is Plaza Mayor? Plaza Mayor is a large rectangular square in the historic centre of Madrid, enclosed on all four sides by uniform arcaded buildings. It was built in the early 17th century, under King Philip III, as a formal public space for markets, royal ceremony, bullfights and public spectacle — a controlled, enclosed … Read more
About what you read here. Access Madrid is an independent guide written from published, checkable sources — museum and transport operators’ own information, official city and tourism data, and the public record. We have not visited the places we write about, and we do not publish personal recommendations or invented “local favourites”. Where we point to something notable we say who says so.
Opening times, fares, closures and prices change, often at short notice. Everything here is a starting point, not a booking confirmation — always check the venue’s or operator’s own site before you build a day around it. We are not a travel agency and we give no advice on visas, insurance, health or safety requirements; for those, use your own government’s official guidance.