When I first visited Madrid, I couldn’t quite believe the scale and grandeur of the historic buildings that crowd its large and imposing centre. Walking through the heart of the city you go from the almost flamboyant 18th and 19th century buildings of the Grand Via and Puerta del Sol, through the extraordinary Plaza Mayor that dates to the 15th century, to the imposing Royal Palace.
It shouldn’t have been a surprise. This is the imperial capital of Spain’s colonial project in the Americas. The wealth it generated in looted gold, silver and a host of other valuable commodities is written large across the city. So huge was the volume of precious metals, it ended up undermining the value of gold, crashing the Spanish economy and spreading inflation across Europe.
When you consider the Bolivian ‘joke’ that all the silver mined by the Spanish from the city of Potosí could, if melted down, form a bridge from the Americas to Spain, the scale becomes clear. There’s certainly large amounts of suspiciously Bolivian-looking silver in Madrid’s churches. If this left Bolivia and other Latin American countries impoverished, it has made modern Madrid a spectacle to behold.
Spreading out from the historic core are fascinating barrios that tell the story of Madrid over the centuries. We were staying in Lavapiés, the narrow medieval streets date back to Moorish times. Because it was outside the city walls it became the Jewish ghetto. The name comes from the fountain in which Jews washed their feet before entering the synagogue.
After the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, it was occupied by Christians and the few Jews forcibly converted to Christianity rather than leave their homes. It’s a district that has seen waves of migration ever since, and makes a central base for exploring Madrid. South of Lavapiés is a former industrial area that has been transformed over recent years. The centrepiece of which is Matadero Madrid.
Madrid’s 20th century slaughterhouse and livestock market, Matadero is now a brilliant collection of artistic and cultural spaces, cafes and restaurants. It’s wonderful and a good starting point from which to walk through the adjoining botanical gardens and river park. One of the highlights of which is the Arganzuela Bridge crossing the Manzanares river. A little further along, and 300-years older, is the Toledo Bridge.
We jumped on the metro and headed to the Plaza Mayor, which was absolutely heaving with people, so we dived into La Torre del Oro for a caña. The interior of the bar is covered ceiling to floor in bullfighting memorabilia. One section of a wall is dedicated to bulls getting revenge on matadors. The photos are not pleasant, but the staff are friendly and gave us some tasty tapas.
We strolled through crowded streets to Puerta del Sol, and then to Casa Labra. This ancient looking bar serves the best fried fish in the city, and it looks like the whole world has discovered this fact. It was always busy in the past, but I’ve never seen queues before. The queue is a new phenomenon in Madrid, we saw it several times. Afterwards, we went to the area around Plaza Santa Ana.
This hotbed of tapas bars and nightlife was where we stayed on our first visit to Madrid 25 years ago. It’s changed a bit, but is still a lot of fun. The excellent sherry bar, La Venencia, was our main destination, but we couldn’t pass up the gambas croquettes and gambas al ajillo at Casa del Abuelo. Next up was Chueca and the maze of streets leading to Plaza del Dos de Mayo.
Amongst these streets we discovered Casa Camacho. An old-world vermut bar with friendly staff and a resident population of aged Madrileños, who seemed to have been in the same seats for at least the last 50 years. We strolled through upmarket Jusitcia before entering the wonderful Parque de El Retiro with its statue of Satan. The day ended in the cinema seats of Sala Equis, beer in hand and classic film on the screen.
