Madrid de los Austrias: from the Habsburg court to the Muslim wall: a self-guided walk
By Alleytale
Madrid de los Austrias, ending at the Muslim wall
Philip II made Madrid his capital in 1561, and his dynasty gave it a convent, a great square, a town hall and an Alcázar. The walk follows that court west and ends on what stood here before it.
The stops
Today this is one of the best-known and busiest squares in Madrid, and the plaque on the ground north of the old Post Office is the point from which Spain's road distances are measured. It began as one of the gates in the 15th-century city wall, named for the rising sun that decorated its east-facing entrance. In 1561 Philip II made Madrid his capital, and this walk follows the town that grew around his court, ending at what are probably the oldest stones it has.
Photo: Tomás Fano — CC BY-SA 2.0 Joanna of Austria, the daughter of Emperor Charles V, founded this convent of Poor Clare nuns in 1559 in what had been her father's palace, and she was buried here. Noblewomen who entered brought dowries, and the convent grew into one of the richest in Europe. The composer Tomás Luis de Victoria worked here from 1587 until his death in 1611.
Photo: Luis García (Zaqarbal) — CC BY-SA 3.0 One of the oldest churches in Madrid, rebuilt in 1645, with only its Mudéjar bell tower left from the original. The playwright Lope de Vega married here, and the poet Francisco de Quevedo was baptised here. Among its curiosities is a stuffed crocodile, said to have been brought from the Americas under the Catholic Monarchs.
Photo: Luis García (Zaqarbal) — CC BY-SA 3.0 This is the square the Habsburgs built. Juan Gómez de Mora took on the project under Philip III in 1617 and it was completed in 1619, on the site of the old Plaza del Arrabal market. In the middle is a bronze Philip III on horseback by Giambologna and Pietro Tacca, a gift from Cosimo II de' Medici that only came here in 1848. Fires in 1631, 1670 and 1790 meant rebuilding, and the building framed by two towers, the Casa de la Panadería, is named for the city bakery it once housed.
Photo: Draceane — CC BY-SA 4.0 Philip IV commissioned this building in 1629 to house the courts and a jail, and Juan Gómez de Mora worked on it until 1636. It was the Cárcel de la Corte, where the condemned were held before being taken to the Plaza Mayor next door. Look at the red façade with white-framed windows and the corner towers: they echo the Plaza Mayor. A fire in 1791 destroyed everything but the façade, and the Foreign Ministry has sat here since 1931.
Photo: Gryffindor — CC BY-SA 3.0 A Baroque church begun in 1739 on the site of the parish church of Saints Justus and Pastor, commissioned by Cardinal Infante Luis, the Archbishop of Toledo, and finished in 1745. It took the name San Miguel after the nearby parish church of San Miguel de los Octoes was torn down following the Napoleonic invasion. The composer Luigi Boccherini was buried here until 1927, when his remains went to his native Lucca.
Photo: Bernard Gagnon — CC BY-SA 4.0 The oldest civil building in Madrid, from the 15th century, with a Gothic tower. Tradition says Francis I of France was held captive in the tower after he was captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525. The square it stands on was known as the Plaza de San Salvador, and in 1463 Henry IV of Castile granted it a market day on Tuesdays.
Photo: Luis García from Madrid (Spain). — CC BY-SA 2.0 A Plateresque palace built in 1537 for Benito Jiménez de Cisneros, a nephew of Cardinal Cisneros, who founded the Complutense University. According to tradition it held Antonio Pérez, the controversial royal secretary of Philip II, as a prisoner. The city of Madrid acquired it around 1909 and linked it by a rear passage to the Casa de la Villa next door.
Photo: losmininos — CC BY-SA 2.0 Juan Gómez de Mora, the architect of the Plaza Mayor, received the commission for the old town hall in 1629. After his death José de Villarreal, Teodoro de Ardemans and José del Olmo carried the work on, and it was finished in 1692. It served as city hall from the 17th century into the 21st and was meant to double as the municipal prison. Before it, the council met in the church of San Salvador nearby.
Photo: Pazit Polak — CC BY 2.0 Named in the Law of Madrid of 1202 as one of the city's oldest parishes, this is now the oldest church in Madrid. Look up at the tower: it dates from the 12th century and is built of brick with blind arches, and archaeological remains suggest the church and its tower may once have been part of a mosque. The slate spire on top was added in the 18th century.
Photo: Luis García (Zaqarbal) — CC BY-SA 3.0 When Madrid became the capital in 1561 it had no cathedral, because the seat of the Church stayed in Toledo. A cathedral was discussed as early as the 16th century, but the cost of the Empire came first and it was postponed. The foundation stone was laid in 1883, the Civil War interrupted the work, and Pope John Paul II consecrated it in 1993. It seems to stand on the site of a medieval mosque destroyed when Alfonso VI took Madrid in 1083.
Photo: Fernando — CC BY-SA 4.0 The palace you see was built for the Bourbons between 1738 and 1755, but it stands where the Habsburgs' Alcázar was, itself raised on a fortress from the 9th century. Charles V had the Alcázar extended in 1537, and Philip III and Philip IV added a long southern façade between 1610 and 1636. It burned down on Christmas Eve 1734: Velázquez's Expulsion of the Moors was lost, while Las Meninas was saved by being tossed out of a window.
Photo: Tim Adams — CC BY-SA 4.0 Pietro Tacca began this bronze of Philip IV in 1634 and it reached Madrid in 1640, the year he died. It follows drawings by Velázquez and a bust by Juan Martínez Montañés. The horse rears on its hind legs, and Galileo Galilei calculated how to balance the whole weight on them. It was set up in the middle of the Plaza de Oriente in 1843 at the insistence of Isabella II.
Photo: Basilio — CC BY-SA 4.0 These are probably the oldest constructions still standing in Madrid, built in the 9th century on a promontory by the Manzanares. They belonged to a fortress around which the city grew: the citadel of Mayrit, the first name of Madrid, stood where the Royal Palace is now. The park is named for Muhammad I of Córdoba, considered the founder of the city, who ordered the walls built.
Photo: Richard Mortel from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — CC BY 2.0
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