Madrid- More Highlights

Madrid has many highlights. I covered some of the obvious ones in my “Madrid Sightseeing Highlights” journal and here I describe some of the more personal places I discovered on my walks around the city.

The Plaza Mayor is very well known but I was unprepared for how I was constantly attracted back to this wonderful square. My first visit was overwhelming. The square was full of people, the blue sky contrasted marvelously with the buildings, the restaurants were in full swing and there was a real buzz to the whole place. Later we returned for the stamp market on Sunday morning, for a closer inspection of the buildings early one other morning, and late one evening after a “tapas crawl”. Each time I had to be dragged away.

The El Rastro fleamarket was another real attraction to me even though I bought almost nothing. Once again it was the atmosphere of the place that had appeal. The location is pretty and some of the stalls were very colourful but it was much more than this. The crowds were happy, the stallholders were friendly and there was no apparent rush. It was what Sunday mornings should be all about.

The Stamp market is held in Plaza Mayor. Stamp, coin and other collectors’ gather to buy, exchange, talk and wander. There were probably plenty of bargains but I didn’t know enough about the products to risk buying much. I was, however, very happy to look and enjoy.

It was pretty much the same with the book market. Most books were in Spanish, which was no use to me, but it was still interesting to see some of the older offerings with their fine binding and old black and white pictures.

The only major structure I cover here is the Church of San Francisco. I had not heard of this before arriving in Madrid but I found this much more interesting than the city’s cathedral. The church has a huge dome and some wonderful artwork. Don’t miss it.

Finally there are the squares, plazas and fountains. Puerta del Sol is the most visited as it is probably the center of the city. Extensive construction work was underway while I was there so it had little appeal. The Plaza de España was a completely different story. I found this a delightful area and the statue in the center brought back great memories of one of my favourite musicals – The Man of La Mancha. Another favourite was the Fountain of Cibeles despite the heavy traffic that passes by.

Quick Tips:

There are bargains to be had at the markets but be careful because there is a minority of stalls selling goods that will fall apart immediately. Be sure to inspect items closely and if you wish to bargain, a 10% reduction on the first price offered is about all you will get. Sometimes up to 15% off can be obtained by buying two or three articles from the same stall.

In the markets and in other crowded areas, be very careful with your wallet and other important documents, because there are pickpockets around.

It is attractive to eat at one of the restaurants in Plaza Mayor but be aware that you are paying a very high price for very average food. What you are really paying for is the position.

After visiting El Rastro fleamarket, I recommend the option of enjoying some tapas in La Latina, one of the oldest and more interesting neighborhoods in Madrid.

If you have any interest in starting a small Spanish stamp collection, a few of the vendors at the Sunday stamp market sell stamp packs and sets at prices much lower than the stamp shops.

Don’t miss Goya's famous painting "The Sermon of San Bernardino", González Velázquez's "St Bonaventure" and "The Appearance of the Virgin to St Anthony" when you visit the Church of San Francisco.

Those interested in architecture and/or shopping will enjoy Gran Via; a showcase of early 20th century architecture. The lively street is one of the city's most important shopping areas.

Best Way To Get Around:

Madrid’s efficient central city public transport consists of buses and the metro. In total, the metro network connects 161 stations. Trains run every 3 to 5 minutes from 6 am to 1:30 am. The fare costs around €1.15.

Madrid has a total of 170 bus lines servicing the city and the outer suburban areas. Schedules and frequency vary according to times and areas being serviced. Buses generally run between 6 am and 11:45 pm. Around 25 bus lines run during night hours.

The commuter trains are another transport option. Run by the state company RENEFE, trains run from Atocha and Chamartín stations and reach many more distant sightseeing destinations as well as the airport. The service runs from 6 am to 11 pm.

If you’re keen on using the public transport system more frequently, it may be a good idea to get a “Diez Viaje“ or a ten-ride ticket for around €5 that is valid for both buses and the metro. Another possibility is purchasing an “Abono Turístico“ – with this special ticket you will have access to various means of transport for a certain period of time without having to pay the fare each time you climb onboard.

Taxis are available but they can be expensive because of the traffic system.

The central area is small enough to walk around and I have walked between all the places mentioned in this journal.

Madrid has many squares and several important streets that appealed to me greatly.
Puerta del Sol is one of the most important of Madrid's squares. It is the place where young people meet; where people exit the Metro to go to old Madrid; a place to shop, and on 31st December, the New Year is brought in to the chimes of the Puerta del Sol clock.

The design of the Puerta del Sol, as we see it today, was begun in 1859 and was the culmination of the opening of Plazas (and destruction of old buildings!) throughout Madrid by José Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon.

It’s only a short walk from here to the Fountain of Cibeles in Cibeles Square. It depicts the goddess Cibeles, the Greek goddess of fertility, who is seen sitting on a chariot and being pulled by two lions. On one side of the fountain, the Paseo de la Recoletos starts, while on the other side, the Paseo del Prado begins and heads off south, towards the Fountain of Neptune, in the Plaza de Cánovas del Castillo.

Up until the 19th century both the Fountain of Neptune and Cibeles looked directly at each other, then the city council decided to turn them round to face towards the centre of the city. The fountain of Cibeles has been adopted by the football team Real Madrid, and is often the meeting point for fans and the football players themselves.

In the middle of the busy Plaza de la Independencia stands one of Madrid's best known landmarks: the Puerta de Alcalá or Alcala Gate. In 1764 King Carlos III commissioned the Italian architect Sabatini to construct a large gate to replace a small 16th century baroque gate. Construction of the gate took 9 years and it soon became one of Madrid's symbols. It is now classified as a national monument and was moved to its current location in the 19th century.

The Plaza de España is a particular favourite of mine. On a sunny day it is filled with street vendors, tourists and sunbathing locals. The square is located at the end of the beautiful Gran Via, one of Madrid's busiest streets. It features a large fountain and famous statue honoring the Spanish writer Cervantes.

Gran Via itself is a showcase of early 20th century architecture. The lively street is one of the city's most important shopping areas. It also contains a large number of hotels and movie theaters. But what makes this street so special it the architectural design of many of the large buildings. While walking through this crowded street make sure you look up once in a while and admire the often lavishly decorated grand 'edificios'.

The Plaza de la Villa (Town Square) is a picturesque small square in the heart of Madrid, not far from the much larger Plaza Mayor. The buildings at the Plaza de la Villa all have contrasting styles. The largest building is the Casa de la Villa or Town Hall.

When it comes to the most important places to see in Madrid, this is right up there towards the top of the list. To get an idea of how massive this building is, the dome atop the Church of San Francisco is larger than that on St. Paul's Cathedral in London. It is architecturally astounding.

The church towers over a portion of old Madrid not far from the palace and cathedral. The dome roof looks large from the outside, but you cannot really understand the magnitude of it until you view the open ceiling from the inside.

The Church of San Francisco el Grande was built for an old-established Franciscan friary. The design for the church, which was begun in 1761, was produced by Fray Francisco Cabezas, who took as his model Carlo Fontana's Church of Santa Maria in Campitel in Rome. In 1770 Francisco Sabatini, Charles III's favorite architect, took over the direction of the project, and the Neo-Classical facade is his work. The dome was added by Antonio Pló.

The interior has paintings by Maella, Francisco Bayeu, González Velázquez and Goya. In the first chapel on the left are Goya's "San Bernardino", González Velázquez's "St Bonaventure" and "The Appearance of the Virgin to St Anthony". The church also contains numerous other works of art, including a "St Bonaventure" ascribed to Zurbarán, a "St Francis" by Alonso Cano and stalls from the Convent of El Paular. If you are interested in church history there is a museum.

Highlights for me were the neoclassical façade by Francisco Sabatini, 'The Sermon of San Bernadino de Siena' by Goya - purported to contain a self-portrait of the artist, white Carrara marble statues of the apostles by Ricardo Bellver and Mariano Benlliure around the rotunda and also the frescoes by Francisco Bayeu. The beautiful stained-glass windows were created by the German firm, Mayer. The entryway is a set of seven hand-carved, fantastic walnut doors that take guests inside the chapels.

The church itself is an example of 18th-century classical design. While the church may not have been constructed until the middle of the 18th century, that does not mean everything inside is from the 18th century. On the contrary, many of the items in the church are much, much older. Even the choir stalls are from the 16th century, Gothic pieces from Segovia.

Even the grounds the church was built on had a religious history, having been a Franciscan convent in the past. It is believed the original convent was founded by St. Francis of Assisi himself in 1217

The church opens Tuesday to Saturday from 11:00 to 13:00 and 16:00 to 18:30.
The nearest metro stations are La Latina and Tirso de Molina.

The popular El Rastro fleamarket is held on Sundays and holidays from about 10AM to 2PM. Even if you don't plan to buy anything, it is a good way to spend Sunday mornings wandering around and finishing with some delicious tapas. Be careful of your wallet and handbags, the very crowded streets are a paradise for pickpockets.

There are streets and streets of crafts, paintings, food, and the list goes on and on. It is worthy of a visit for the character of the market alone. If you like flea markets this one is for you. It was the biggest I've ever seen.

Booths set up along Calle Ribera de Curtidores (directly south of Plaza Mayor, branching from Calle de Toledo) and sell anything and everything, from inexpensive clothes and shoes, to second hand items, to CDs and DVDs. More interestingly, there are many antique shops in the permanent shops along Calle Ribera, especially at the southern end of the street. The best time to go is early in the morning before the market gets too crowded.

The nearest metro stations to the market are La Latina and Tirso de Molina. The market starts at the top of a hill, near La Latina, and spills down the hill, covering several streets. It's enormous--it takes several hours to browse quickly, and probably all morning if you care to look carefully and ask questions. I saw everything from clothes, handcrafts, and electronics, to old books and newspapers, mechanical junk of unknown purpose, old cameras, old records—just about anything you can imagine.

The Rastro attempts to help visitors to find what they are looking for by grouping its products among the streets. We still found it difficult, however, to find exactly what we wanted. On Calle Ribera there were handicrafts, hand-stitched clothing and antiques. On Calle San Cayetano, known as the painters’ street, there were stands selling paintings and replicas of works of art. There are also many art stores that stay open during the week. In the Plaza del General Vara del Rey there were second hand clothes and furniture stands. On Calle Rodas there were many antiques while the Campillo Terrace offered practically anything: tools, fabrics, leather, music, and old magazines.

After a morning of purchases and bargains, or at least of fun and enjoyment, I strongly recommend the option of enjoying some tapas in the area of La Latina, one of the oldest and more interesting neighborhoods in Madrid. There is plenty of place to stand or sit and if you get a few streets away from the markets the crowds thin and it is more relaxing.

The Plaza Mayor, a grand arcaded square in the center of Madrid is very popular with tourists and locals alike. It is a place that we gravitated to repeatedly when we were in Madrid. The symmetrical rectangular square features a uniform architecture, very similar to the contemporary Place des Vosges in Paris.

During the middle ages the site was just a market place outside the city walls. In the 1560s, King Philip II asked Juan de Herrera, architect of the Escorial, to turn the market place into a real square. It would take until 1617, during the reign of King Philips III, before the construction of the new Plaza Mayor started.

The result was a large square, measuring 120m long and 90m wide. Wooden buildings up to six stories high, surrounded it at various times, however, fires destroyed them all three times: in 1631, 1672 and 1790. Each time they were rebuilt, the last reconstruction after a design by Juan de Villanueva is what we see today.

Since its creation, the Plaza Mayor has been the center of festivities, bullfights, royal coronations and executions. These would be attended by as many as 50,000 spectators. It is still used today for public celebrations.

At the center of the square is a bronze statue of King Philips III, constructed in 1616 by the Italian sculptor Giovanni de Bologna. In 1848 it was moved from the Casa de Campo to the Plaza Mayor. Around the same time, the plaza was redesigned with gardens, but those were removed in 1936.

In the summer the Mayor square is full of tables. Take a seat at one and a waiter will arrive from one of the surrounding restaurants with a menu in hand. Be careful, as the prices are generally high and the quality not brilliant. Hoards of tourists hang out on a sunny day loving the atmosphere but moaning at the ridiculous prices of drinks & tapas. The square is often used as a central meeting location for tourist families and tourist groups. That’s just what my wife and I did one day.

On the ground floor level of the Plaza Mayor buildings are cafes, bars, shops, and restaurants, most catering to the tourist. Meals inside are cheaper than those in the square. There were also dealers in antiques, coins, and military memorabilia. There were loads of street entertainers in the square, as well as artists, musicians and so on.

The square is painted a shade of burgundy, the color selected as the result of a citywide vote. Apparently, three different colors were painted as samples on the walls of the square, and the city voted for its favorite.

The first building to be constructed in the square was "La Real Casa de Panadería" (the Royal bakery), which is now the home of the municipal city council and which is located on the north side of the square. It's the one with the beautiful painting on its façade.

I have been a half-hearted stamp collector for many years so when I heard that there was a regular stamp market in Madrid I headed in that direction.

A large stamp market is held every Sunday from about 10am to 2pm at the Plaza Mayor. Vendors sell all sorts of collectable items, but the main emphasis is on stamps and coins. It seems you can buy any Spanish stamp your collection needs as well as many foreign stamps. Coins range from Roman right through to the Euro.

There are also some more unusual items like beer bottle tops for sale. If only I'd thought many years ago that they were collectable I'd have a big, valuable collection by now. Darn it!!

A few of the vendors sell stamp packs and sets and I picked up a couple of these. This was a good way of starting a small Spanish collection. Many locals had brought along their albums of duplicates. They check each other’s albums and swap the duplicates, a good idea and it costs nothing. I would have loved to do this but unfortunately my albums were on the other side of the world.

The choice is probably the best to be found among Spain's markets, with a wide range of stamps, postcards and postal history items, as well as coins, telephone cards and militaria. A good number of stamp shops are located in and around the Plaza, so even if your visit doesn't include a Sunday, you can still get a philatelic fix.

It’s some way from the Plaza Mayor to the Palacio de Comunicaciones, Rising majestically from the southeast corner of the Plaza de la Cibeles. Madrid's main post office has the appearance of a gothic cathedral rather than a place to buy stamps. The locals call it "Our Lady of Communications."

Around the corner from the main entrance, a more modest doorway leads to the Postal and Telegraphic Museum. Collections of Spanish and overseas stamps, a fine stamp library and an interactive computer guide make this one of the better postal museums. Unlike most other Spanish museums, admission is free.

Although nothing to do with stamps I must also mention the daily book market on Cuesta de Moyano which offers a mixture of both antique rarities and modern publications. This is a paradise for collectors and we found some books in English. All this amongst the spectacular setting of the main Madrid art galleries and museums! It opens Mon - Fri 0930-1700 (later in summer), weekends 0930-1400. Atocha is the nearest metro station.