Explorar Madrid

Almudena Cathedral is the seat of the Archdiocese of Madrid, facing the Royal Palace. Begun in 1883 to plans by Francisco de Cubas, it was finished more than a century later and consecrated by Pope John Paul II in 1993. Behind its grey-and-white classical exterior lies a Gothic Revival nave with modern chapels, and a Romanesque Revival crypt lies beneath.

Museo Reina Sofía is Spain's national museum of 20th-century and contemporary art, near Atocha station, opened in 1992 in the 18th-century General Hospital building by Francesco Sabatini with glass lift towers added in 1989 and a 2005 extension by Jean Nouvel. Its collection includes Picasso's Guernica and works by Salvador Dalí.

Retiro Park is a 1.4 km² park on the edge of central Madrid, laid out in the 1630s as the gardens of the royal Buen Retiro Palace and opened to the public in 1868. Beside its large boating lake stands the colonnaded monument to King Alfonso XII, and the park also holds the glass Palacio de Cristal of 1887, a rose garden and many statues.