Madrid Guide
Madrid will over offer you a lot to discover during your city break. The Spanish capital belongs to the most popular destinations for a city break. The best place to begin your sightseeing tour Madrid is in the heart of the city. Madrid is divided in different districts. The most interested districts for your city break are Sol, Huertas and La Latina in the middle of the city centre. Here you will find the most important tourist attractions. In Sol you will find the Puerta del Sol and the Plaza Mayor. In Huertas you can bring a visit to the famous museums Museo del Prado and Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. La Latina is the oldest part of the city with narrow alleys, little squares and beautiful churches. A very attractive site in Madrid is the large urban park Casa de Campo. It’s the perfect place to relax or to have a lot of fun, because of the spectacular entertainment park you can find here. Do you prefer to go to the zoo? Also the Zoo Aquarium Madrid is located right here!
History Madrid
The history of Madrid is not as long as other Spanish cities such as Barcelona or Sevilla; most probably because of the location in the middle of the Iberian Peninsula far from the sea and without any possibilities to build a port. Madrid was founded in the middle of the 9th century by the Moors. At this time Muhammad I built a palace on the location where nowadays we find the Palacio Real near the river Manzanares, which the Moors called Al-Majrit. The Moors built a small citadel near the palace. In 1085 the citadel was conquered by the Christian king Alfonso VI of Castile.
Madrid was declared the capital of Spain by Philip II In 1561. Madrid started to flourish especially during the 16th and 17th century, which was called the ‘Siglo de Oro’ or Golden Century. Spanish art and literature came to live with painters as Velázques and Francisco de Zurbarán and with the writer Miguel de Cervantes, world famous for his masterwork Don Quixote.
During the 19th century Madrid suffered from some severe disturbances. On the 2nd of May 1808 Napoleon and his troupes occupied Madrid, which led to the Spanish war of Independence. Napoleon was defeated in 1814. At the end of the 19th century political tension arose which resulted in the proclamation of the First Spanish Republic in 1873, which only lasted until 1874. The monarchy was restored. After the Second Spanish Republic, between 1931 and 1936, the Spanish Civil War began. More than half a million people died in this war. After the war in 1939 an authoritarian state was founded under the regime of Francisco Franco. After Franco’s dead in 1975 the monarchy was restored and Juan Carlos I became the King of Spain.