Madrid, Spain
Madrid, city, capital of Spain and of Madrid provincia (province). Spain’s arts and financial centre, the city proper and province form a comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) in central Spain. Madrid’s status as the national capital reflects the centralizing policy of the 16th-century Spanish king Philip II and his successors. The choice of Madrid, however, was also the result of the city’s previous obscurity and neutrality: it was chosen because it lacked ties with an established nonroyal power rather than because of any strategic, geographic, or economic considerations. Indeed, Madrid is deficient in other characteristics that might qualify it for a leading role. It does not lie on a major river, as so many European cities do; the 16th–17th-century dramatist Lope de Vega, referring to a magnificent bridge over the distinctly unimposing waters of the Manzanares, suggested either selling the bridge or buying another river.
Madrid does not possess mineral deposits or other natural wealth, nor was it ever a destination of pilgrimages, although its patron saint, San Isidro, enjoys the all-but-unique distinction of having been married to another saint. Even the city’s origins seem inappropriate for a national capital: its earliest historical role was as the site of a small Moorish fortress on a rocky outcrop—part of the northern defenses of what was then the far more important city of Toledo, located about 43 miles (70 km) south-southwest.
Madrid was officially made the national capital by Philip III, an entire generation after Philip II took the court to Madrid in 1561. Under the patronage of Philip II and his successors, Madrid developed into a city of curious contrasts, preserving its old, overcrowded centre, around which developed palaces, convents, churches, and public buildings. Pop. (2011) 3,198,645; (2018 est.) 3,223,334.
The city layout
Madrid is a city of contrasting styles, reflecting clearly the different periods in which change, and development took place. The old centre, a maze of small streets around a few squares in the vicinity of the imposing Plaza Mayor, contrasts with the stately Neoclassical buildings and grand boulevards created by the most eminent architects of their day. Modern office buildings in the centre and swaths of apartment blocks around the outskirts attest to the styles and economic realities of present-day development.
Much of Madrid gives the impression of being cramped. When Madrid was first made the capital, the king obliged the city’s inhabitants to let a floor of their houses to ambassadors and visiting dignitaries, which prompted many people to build structures with only one floor or sometimes (in the so-called casas a la malicia, or “spite houses”) with two floors but with a facade giving the impression of only one. Subsequent development of the city generated an enormous demand for land, particularly with the extensive construction of public buildings and convents.
The last of Madrid’s four sets of city walls was built in 1625 and was not demolished until 1860 (by which time the population of the city had quadrupled). The situation was not alleviated even when Napoleon’s brother Joseph Bonaparte, who briefly interrupted the bourbon line of kings, demolished the convents to create more open space. Joseph’s nickname El Rey Plazuelas (“King of the Small Plazas”)—one of the few complimentary ones he was given—derived from the squares he created. They did little to appease the ecclesiastical authorities, whose alienation contributed to his downfall. One of the squares, the Plaza de Oriente, facing the palace of the same name, was cleared of 56 houses, a library, a church, and several convents.
Los Madriles” (“the Madrids”) is a traditional phrase that acknowledges the fact that each barrio (quarter) has developed its own style. There was also a geographical and social distinction among the geographically placed barrios altos (upper quarters), barrios centrales (middle quarters), and barrios bajos (lower quarters). The last, spilling downhill from the Plaza Mayor along the Calle de Toledo toward the river, are still poor, albeit picturesque. Later development, also accommodating Madrid’s poorer citizens, spread down toward the reclaimed marshland on both sides of the river, where low-cost housing can still be found. Construction of the Valdecarros district in the southeast of Madrid’s municipality, expected to house about 150,000 residents, began in 2007. Just over the brow of the hill is the Rastro, the popular flea market. Despite a number of urban development plans, Madrid did not spread into the open spaces around it, not even crossing the Manzanares River until 1948. By contrast, the city as a whole has some extensive parks, with more open space overall than Paris. Some, like El Pardo or Casa de Campo, are survivals of hunting parks; the Retiro, on the other hand, is the site of a former royal palace.
Madrid has not escaped the problems common to so many modern cities. Pollution can be intense, and severe traffic congestion is common. Personal safety is not as certain as it once was in the days of the serenos (night watchmen). But the city has preserved the charm, character, and vivacity that give it and its inhabitants a style of their own—an important aspect of modern Spain, where each region seeks to express its own identity.
The people of Madrid
The flow of migration to Madrid, attracted chiefly by the city’s expanding industrial belt in the 1950s and ’60s, has created a modern population representative of the entire Spanish country. A traditional nickname for the Madrileños is gatos (“cats”), originally coined in the Middle Ages as a reference to the ability of local troops to scale castle walls. It would be no less apt as a reference to the local lifestyle and the late hours kept by the city’s inhabitants, although keeping late hours is also common in other parts of Spain, especially in the heat of summer. People eat late, theatres and cinemas begin performances late as a matter of course, and the siesta is by no means dead, although the introduction of modern business methods and the influx of foreign interests have tended to alter the traditional workday, doing away with the long midday break.
The city offers a wealth of cultural events and entertainments; its cultivated people tend to be widely read, while the youth are up-to-date with the latest pop music. The number of casas regionales—regional clubs catering to people who have come from all over the country to work—reflects the source of labour for Madrid’s industrial and commercial sectors. Madrid also has taken on a cosmopolitan character with the influx of immigrants, particularly from Latin America but also from Asia, elsewhere in Europe, and North Africa. Madrid is a city that, with its style and flair, absorbs and holds those who live there or know it. Its inhabitants have a reputation for being attached to it; in the words of a local proverb, “From Madrid to heaven, and in heaven a little window from which to see it.”
The economy
Industry, commerce, and finance
Being the centre of government, finance, and insurance has long contributed to the prosperity of the capital, as have tourism and the city’s position as Spain’s transportation hub. Following the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), the city became an important manufacturing centre for the automotive and aircraft industries and for electric and electronic equipment, metallurgical manufactures, and optics, as well as for the production of plastics, rubber, and consumer goods. Madrid, with Barcelona, dominates publishing in Spain. Despite the traditional preeminence of industry, services now account for some four-fifths of employment in the capital. Madrid is home to the Spanish Stock Market, one of Europe’s busiest.
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