Madrid

The holdings are what the crown amassed over three centuries, so the taste leans hard one way. A crowd always stands at Las Meninas, and Goya's black paintings sit in a room of their own. For years the final two hours of the day have been free.

Buildings close all four sides, and nine arched gateways are the only openings. Burnings, bullfights and royal proclamations happened on this floor, which burned and was rebuilt three times. The restaurants around it charge double the lanes behind.

A royal garden thrown open to the public late in the nineteenth century, with traces of the old pleasure palace still among the trees. The all-glass Palacio de Cristal was a hothouse for an 1887 show of the Philippine colony and holds nothing inside.

Europe holds few palaces this large, yet the king lives out at the Zarzuela, not here. The old timber alcazar burned on the eve of Christmas 1734 and the replacement went up in stone alone. If a state occasion falls on your day it shuts entirely.

Most people come for one canvas, Guernica. Painted in Paris during the civil war, it stayed in New York for decades and reached Spain only in 1981, where it first hung behind bulletproof glass. The glass is gone now, but that room alone bars cameras.

Egypt took apart a temple the Aswan dam would drown and gave it to Spain in 1968; the blocks were numbered and stacked again here. It faces west, so at sunset the whole building doubles in the pool in front, and the railings fill at that hour.

The flea market opens on Sunday mornings alone, and what is sold changes lane by lane. Clothes fill the upper streets; Ribera de Curtidores below carries old objects and spare parts. By 3pm the stalls come down and the crowd shifts into the bars nearby.

The avenue was cut through a tangle of old lanes in one go from 1910. The work ran more than thirty years. Each stretch wears the style then in fashion, so one street shows two faces end to end. Theatres and shops keep it among the last to empty at night.

The motorway that ran along the Manzanares was dropped underground and its roof turned into parkland. Down at the water no traffic reaches your ears, and children pile into the summer jets that shoot up from the paving.

A slab in the pavement marks where Spain's roads begin; six national highways measure from it. The bear on a strawberry tree is off the city arms, and people meet there. Each December 31 the square jams at night with crowds eating twelve grapes to the clock.

The Thyssen family's private collection, bought by the state in 1993 and hung in a mansion facing the Prado. It holds the Impressionist, Expressionist and American work the Prado lacks. A combined pass covers it with the Prado and Reina Sofia.

A glass and iron market from 1916 just west of Plaza Mayor, visited now for tapas, not shopping. Oyster, olive skewer and croquette counters ring the hall, and most people eat standing. Prices run above neighbourhood bars, so try a plate or two.

The cathedral facing the Royal Palace, begun in 1883 and only consecrated in 1993. The outside ended up neoclassical; the ceiling inside is painted in bold modern colour. Its museum route climbs to a terrace round the dome above the palace.

Real Madrid's home ground, right on the Castellana boulevard. The rebuild wrapped it in silver steel bands and added a roof that opens and closes. The tour takes in the trophy room; on match days its hours change, so check ahead.

Founded in 1559 by Juana, sister of Philip II, this Poor Clare house is still home to nuns. Royal daughters who entered brought paintings with them, and tapestries woven from Rubens designs remain. Entry is only on small guided visits.

A small chapel whose dome Goya painted in 1798 with a miracle of Saint Anthony, and where Goya himself is buried. Entry is free. On the saint's day, 13 June, women hoping for a partner drop 13 pins into the font.

The botanic garden Charles III moved beside the Prado in 1781. Its stepped terraces split medicinal plants, fruit trees and roses into separate beds. In a back corner is a bonsai garden given by the former prime minister Felipe Gonzalez.

The white-spired former central post office, now city hall and a cultural space. From its top viewpoint you see Gran Via and Calle de Alcala fork apart. The Cibeles fountain in the square below is where fans gather when Real Madrid win a title.

A neoclassical gateway Charles III had Sabatini build in 1778. It has five arches, and its city-facing carving differs from the outer face. It stands in the roundabout right outside the north-west gate of Retiro Park.

An early 20th-century slaughterhouse and livestock market turned arts complex. Its brick sheds now hold theatres, a cinema and galleries, and it opens onto the Madrid Rio riverside park. Weekend markets and food stalls sometimes fill the yard.

Monastery and palace Philip II began in 1563 in the hills north-west of Madrid; the commuter train takes about an hour. Below lies the royal pantheon, kings stacked in tiers of coffins. In the frescoed library, books sit with page edges facing out, not spines.

The quarter between Sol and the Prado where Cervantes and Lope de Vega lived. Lines by writers are set in bronze letters along the paving of Calle de las Huertas. Cervantes lies buried in the Trinitarias convent here.

The museum covering Iberia from prehistory to the Middle Ages, in the Salamanca district. The stone bust called the Lady of Elche is its star piece. Under the garden is a full replica of the Altamira cave paintings.

A museum dug into the slope between the Royal Palace and Almudena Cathedral, opened in 2023. Royal paintings, armour, carriages and tapestries run in date order, floor by floor. Its long front faces out over the Campo del Moro gardens below.

The spring palace of the crown on the Tagus south of Madrid, under an hour by commuter train. Wide gardens line the river; the Prince's Garden ends at a museum of royal boats. Rodrigo's guitar concerto takes its name from these gardens.

The university town where Cervantes was born, an easy commuter train ride east. The 16th-century university front and the Cervantes birthplace museum stand in the old town. Both are World Heritage, and old-town bars send a big tapa out with each drink.