Must see attractions in Madrid

This amusement park in the Casa de Campo has the usual collection of high-adrenaline rides, shows for the kids and kitsch at every turn. In the Zona de…

Madrid’s zoo, in the Casa de Campo, is a fairly standard European city zoo home to about 3000 animals. Exhibits range from white Siberian tigers to mambas…

You don’t have to be a trainspotter to enjoy this railway museum – you’ll see as many kids as anoraks – but it helps. Housed in the disused 1880s Estación…

This venerable club of learned types was founded in 1821, although the building took on its present form in 1884. Its library prompted Benito Pérez Galdós…

The main building on the Plaza de la Puerta del Sol houses the regional government of the Comunidad de Madrid. The Casa de Correos was built as the city’s…

Paris has Notre Dame and Rome has St Peter’s Basilica. In fact, almost every European city of stature has its signature cathedral, a standout monument to…

Sometimes called the ‘lungs of Madrid’, this 17-sq-km stand of greenery stretches west of the Río Manzanares. There are prettier and more central parks in…

The National Anthropology Museum houses collections of clothing, images and everyday objects from indigenous cultures in Africa, Asia and the Americas…

The Plaza de la Puerta del Sol owes its present appearance in part to the Bourbon king Carlos III (r 1759–88), whose equestrian statue (complete with his…

In 1992 the northwestern wing of the Antigua Estación de Atocha was given a stunning overhaul. The structure of this grand iron-and-glass relic from the…

The Capilla del Obispo is a hugely important site on the historical map of Madrid. It was here that San Isidro Labrador, patron saint of Madrid, was first…

Look out for the statue of a bear nuzzling a madroño (strawberry tree) at the eastern end of the Plaza de la Puerta del Sol; this is the official symbol…

Empire may have become a dirty word but it defined how Spain saw itself for centuries. Spanish vessels crossed the Atlantic to the Spanish colonies in…

High above Calle de Segovia, Madrid's viaduct, which connects La Morería with the cathedral and royal palace, was built in the 19th century and replaced…

The 17th-century Casa de la Villa (old town hall), on the western side of the Plaza de la Villa, is a typical Habsburg edifice with Herrerian slate-tiled…

This pleasant little triangle of open space is not without historical intrigue. Joseph Bonaparte ordered the destruction of the Iglesia de San Juanito to…

Behind the cathedral apse and down Cuesta de la Vega is a short stretch of the original ‘Arab Wall’, the city wall built by Madrid’s early-medieval Muslim…

This fine old church is one of the few remaining windows on post-Muslim Madrid, most notably its clearly Mudéjar (a Moorish architectural style) brick…

This grand former barracks dominates Conde Duque on Malasaña's western fringe with its imposing facade stretching 228m down the hill. Built in 1717 under…

So extraordinary is the Palacio de Comunicaciones on Plaza de la Cibeles that many visitors fail to notice this fine 19th-century pleasure dome that…