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City guide · Spain
Madrid stands about 660 metres above sea level on the River Manzanares, near the middle of the Iberian Peninsula, and covers 605.77 km² with over 3.4 million people in the city in 2025 and around 6.8 million in the metropolitan area. It started as a walled outpost of the Emirate of Córdoba in the late ninth century and only became a capital in 1561, when the Hispanic Monarchy fixed its court there. Much of a first visit is one walkable band: the Plaza Mayor, the Royal Palace, the Buen Retiro park of 1631, and the three museums strung along the Paseo del Prado.
Ranked by importance — sitelinks, pageviews and heritage status, not editor preference.
Plaza Mayor is the enclosed rectangular square at the centre of Hapsburg Madrid, the oldest quarter of the city, and it is a piece of deliberate town planning rather than a space that grew by accident.
Puerta del Sol is a semi-circular public square in the exact centre of Madrid, and it is a junction before it is a monument.
Set your days, your pace and the hours you actually want to be out. The planner works around closing days and travel time, and leaves room to eat.
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