On Christmas Eve 1734, the old Alcázar of Madrid burned to the ground — taking centuries of royal art with it. What rose in its place was a deliberate statement: the Royal Palace, 135,000 square metres of stone and granite, the largest royal palace in Western Europe. Its 3,418 rooms hold over a hundred more than any palace you are likely to see anywhere in Europe. Yet here is the twist that makes it unique among the continent's great royal seats: no Spanish monarch has ever actually lived in this palace. It hosts state ceremonies, receptions, official audiences — but the royal family keeps its private residence elsewhere, at the more modest Zarzuela Palace outside the city. The throne room, where you will find the lions and the crimson velvet, was prepared for kings who never slept upstairs.
Audio guide Madrid
Tella is a free audio guide for any place on Earth. Here are 30 places in Madrid worth a story. Open one on the map and hear it read aloud in English, or take the Android app on a walk and let it narrate whatever you pass.
Places worth a story
Museo del Prado
Spanish national art museum in Madrid, Spain
Complutense University of Madrid
public university in Madrid, Spain
Vicente Calderón Stadium
home stadium of Atlético de Madrid from 1966 to 2017
Photo: Diario de Madrid · CC BY 4.0
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
national museum of art in Madrid, Spain
Royal Palace of Madrid
official residence of the Spanish Royal Family
Photo: Tim Adams · CC BY-SA 4.0
Almudena Cathedral
Roman Catholic cathedral in Madrid, Spain
Work on Madrid's cathedral began in 1883, but it took so long to finish that its interior was designed for a whole different century. The conservative 19th-century plans were eventually set aside, and the inside became strikingly modern — bright, abstract, even Pop Art. The building was finally consecrated by Pope John Paul II in 1993, on his fourth visit to Spain. One reason for the long delay: the cathedral sits directly opposite the Royal Palace, and every design had to be approved to suit its royal neighbor.
Photo: Fernando · CC BY-SA 4.0
Senate of Spain
upper house of Spain's parliament, the Cortes Generales
Photo: Esetena · CC BY-SA 3.0
Congress of Deputies
lower house of the Cortes Generales (legislative branch of Spain's national government)
Photo: Francisco Anzola · CC BY 2.0
Main Square
square in Madrid, Spain
Three times the square now called Plaza Mayor has burned—each time, Madrid rebuilt it, and each time it came back more disciplined. The version you see dates from 1790, after the last fire, and its most famous feature is the one thing no bailiff can tax: light. The nine arched entrances let sunlight fall into the square all day, while the 237 balconies above once belonged to families who paid to watch royal pageants, bullfights and the occasional public execution. The bronze horseman at the center is Philip III, who ordered the square built in the early 1600s. Today the arches shelter cafés and churrerías, and the upper floors still watch, mostly empty, over the morning light.
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
art museum in Madrid, Spain
Photo: Kyle Magnuson from Los Angeles, United States · CC BY 2.0
Puerta del Sol
square in Madrid, Spain
The clock that rules the Spanish New Year hangs on the old Casa de Correos, and at midnight on December 31st the entire country eats twelve grapes in time with its chimes. That tradition began in 1909, when Alicante growers had a bumper harvest and invented the ritual to unload their surplus. The square is also Spain's official ground zero — a marker set into the pavement marks Kilometre Zero, the point from which all six national roads are measured. On its east side stands the statue of the Bear and the Strawberry Tree, the heraldic emblem that has symbolized Madrid since the 13th century.
Photo: Matt Joseph · CC BY-SA 4.0
National Museum of Archaeology
archaeological museum in Madrid, Spain
Teatro Real
opera house in Madrid, Spain
When Madrid's Teatro Real finally reopened as an opera house in 1997, the city had waited over seventy years for it to sing again. Built on the Plaza de Oriente opposite the Royal Palace, it opened in 1850 under Queen Isabella II, then shut in 1925 after structural damage. For decades it served only as a concert hall. The 1969 Eurovision Song Contest was staged here — the year of the famous four-way tie — and since 2012 Spain's Christmas lottery draw, the one where schoolchildren sing the winning numbers, has been broadcast from its stage.
Photo: Fernando · CC BY-SA 4.0
Technical University of Madrid
university in Spain
Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando
Spanish art school, museum and gallery in Madrid, Spain
plaza de Cibeles
square in Madrid, Spain
Photo: Miguel Diaz from Boadilla del Monte, España-Spain · CC BY-SA 2.0
Cercanías Madrid
commuter rail service that serves Madrid, the capital of Spain
Stories are written by an AI from public map and encyclopaedia data and may contain mistakes.