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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.
El Retiro is the historic municipal garden that fills the ground east of the Paseo del Prado, and it is the only part of central Madrid large enough to lose an afternoon in.
The Real Jardín Botánico is a working research institute of the CSIC, Spain's national research council, that happens to be open to the public.
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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