Explore Madrid

Puerta del Sol is a public square in the centre of Madrid and the point from which distances on Spain's radial roads are measured, marked by the Kilómetro Cero plaque. On its south side stands the Real Casa de Correos of 1766–1768, whose clock strikes the twelve chimes of New Year's Eve, and the square holds the statue of the Bear and the Strawberry Tree.

The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, founded in 1752, has had its seat since 1773 in the Goyeneche palace on Calle de Alcalá, remodelled in neoclassical style by Diego de Villanueva. Its museum shows Spanish and European painting and sculpture from the 16th to the 20th century, with works by Goya, Zurbarán, Ribera and Arcimboldo.

The Convent of Las Descalzas Reales is a convent of Poor Clare nuns in central Madrid, founded in 1559 by Joanna of Austria, daughter of Emperor Charles V, in the palace where she was born. Run by Patrimonio Nacional and seen on a guided tour, it holds a painted main staircase, chapels and a series of tapestries after designs by Rubens.

Gran Vía is a main avenue in central Madrid, running from Calle de Alcalá to Plaza de España, cut through the old city between 1910 and 1929. It is lined with early 20th-century buildings in styles from Vienna Secession and Neo-Mudéjar to Art Deco, among them the domed Metrópolis Building, the Telefónica Building and the Capitol, with theatres, cinemas and shops.

Plaza Mayor is a rectangular square in old Madrid, first built between 1580 and 1619 and enclosed by uniform arcaded buildings with 237 balconies. Its present look dates from Juan de Villanueva's rebuilding after a fire in 1790; the painted façade of the Casa de la Panadería faces the bronze equestrian statue of Philip III, made in 1616, at the centre.

The Teatro Real is Madrid's opera house, on the Plaza de Oriente opposite the Royal Palace. Begun in 1818 and opened by Queen Isabella II in 1850, it closed in 1925, served as a concert hall from 1966 and reopened as an opera house in 1997. Besides performances, it offers guided and audio-guided tours of the building.

The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum occupies the Villahermosa Palace on the Paseo del Prado, across from the Prado. It grew from the private collection of the Thyssen-Bornemisza family, bought by the Spanish state in 1993, and covers European painting from the 13th century to Pop Art, including Italian primitives, Dutch masters, Impressionism, Expressionism and American art.

Plaza de Cibeles is a square in central Madrid where Calle de Alcalá crosses the Paseo del Prado and Paseo de Recoletos. At its centre stands the Cibeles Fountain of 1782, designed by Ventura Rodríguez, with the goddess Cybele on a chariot drawn by two lions. The square is framed by the Palacio de Cibeles, Madrid's city hall, and the Bank of Spain.

The Royal Palace of Madrid is the official residence of the Spanish royal family, used today for state ceremonies. It was built between 1738 and 1755 on the site of the old Alcázar, which burned in 1734, and has 3,418 rooms. Visitors see the Throne Room, the apartments of Charles III, the Royal Chapel and the Royal Armoury.

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.

The Museo del Prado is Spain's national art museum, opened in 1819 in a neoclassical building on the Paseo del Prado designed by Juan de Villanueva. Built on the former royal collection, it shows European art from the 12th to the early 20th century, with large groups of paintings by Velázquez, Goya, El Greco, Titian, Rubens and Hieronymus Bosch.

The Royal Botanic Garden of Madrid is an 8-hectare botanical garden beside the Prado Museum, founded by King Ferdinand VI in 1755 and moved to its present site on the Paseo del Prado in 1781. Laid out on three terraces by Francesco Sabatini and Juan de Villanueva, it holds more than 5,500 plant species, greenhouses and the Villanueva Pavilion; the CSIC research council runs it.

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.

The Convent of las Comendadoras de Santiago, on Plaza de las Comendadoras near Conde Duque, has housed nuns of the Order of Santiago since 1650. Its church, built by the brothers Manuel and José del Olmo and dated 1697, has a Greek-cross plan under a central dome. The visit covers the church, the lower choir, the Chapel of the Girls and the Knights' Sacristy.

Flamenco de Leones is a flamenco tablao and restaurant on the ground floor of a building on Plaza de la Independencia, beside the Puerta de Alcalá. Modelled on the old cafés cantantes, it pairs Spanish cooking with an evening show of song, guitar and dance under the artistic direction of the dancer Jonatan Miró.

Puerta de Alcalá is a neoclassical gate on Plaza de la Independencia, beside the main entrance to Retiro Park. King Charles III commissioned it from Francesco Sabatini to replace an older gate in the city wall on the road to Alcalá de Henares, and it was inaugurated in 1778. It has five openings, three of them arched, with sculpture by Francisco Gutiérrez and Roberto Michel.

The Madrid Wax Museum on Paseo de Recoletos, beside Plaza de Colón, opened on 14 February 1972. It shows more than 450 wax figures, most of them set in scenes, from Spanish and world history, politics, sport, film and children's stories, along with a horror section and an escape room.

The National Archaeological Museum was founded in 1867 by a decree of Isabella II and since 1895 has occupied the Calle de Serrano side of a neoclassical palace by Francisco Jareño, shared with the National Library. Its collections run from prehistory to the 19th century and include the Lady of Elche and the Visigothic votive crowns of Guarrazar.

The Liria Palace is the Madrid residence of the Dukes of Alba, a neoclassical palace built around 1770 to designs by Ventura Rodríguez. Gutted during the Spanish Civil War and rebuilt behind its original facades, it has been open to visitors since 2019, who tour its rooms and the family's collection of paintings, sculpture and decorative arts.

The Temple of Debod is an ancient Nubian temple begun in the early 2nd century BC south of Aswan in Egypt as a chapel to Amun, and later enlarged under the Ptolemies and Roman emperors. Egypt gave it to Spain in 1968 for its help in saving the monuments of Nubia, and it was rebuilt with two of its stone gateways on a hill near the Royal Palace, opening in 1972.