From the street, Madrid’s only remaining pelota stadium doesn’t look like much. Painted a genteel cream and white and decorated with ornamental columns and balustrades, it blends nicely in with the very Parisian look of Madrid’s northern neighbourhoods. But behind its polite public façade, a fast and furious version of pelota called cesta punta, or …
When I heard that an observation deck had opened up next to the Royal Palace, I was down there like a shot. Closed off to visitors for years, up until now it had only been possible to get tantalizing glimpses of its spectacular views through iron railings. So it was a delight to be finally …
Nobody knows quite why Philip II moved the royal court to Madrid back in the 16th century, but one credible theory is that its location, right at the heart of the Iberian Peninsula, made it the perfect spot to rule from. Only, if this was his true motivation, he was ever so slightly off. The …
The story of Madrid’s colonias When Madrid’s city walls were demolished in 1868, a construction boom got underway, with smart apartment blocks springing up all over the place. Areas like Salamanca took on a distinctly Parisian feel as the wealthy moved into grand flats furnished with every modern convenience. But little provision was made for …
Spanish Style Christmas Kitsch I first encountered the OTT Spanish nativity at a Christmas feast hosted by my uncle-in-law. Tío Mariano is famed for stuffing his guests with enough fine wine, top shelf jamón, and truffles to bring on a deep and lasting food coma. I wound up stupefied however, the moment I walked through …
One of Madrid’s great mysteries is why Philip II named a country backwater as his capital when he had other, far more well-established cities to choose from. While Madrid is geographically slap bang in the center of Spain, in the 16th century roads were so poor that some believe delays in delivering the king’s orders …
In Madrid’s Royal Academy of History lies a document that has had scholars of Spanish literature up in arms ever since it was discovered in a dusty archive in Valladolid back in 1840. Dated September 1569, it’s an order for the arrest of a “certain Miguel de Cervantes” accused of gravely wounding Don Antonio de …
The beautiful tiled street signs you find all over central Madrid are one of the city’s most distinctive features and reproductions of them are sold by the bucket-load to tourists looking to take some souvenir of their stay back with them. But did you know that these iconic tiles only date as far back as …
Anyone who finds themselves in the lobby of the newly refurbished Sevilla metro is in for a treat. Finally exposed after being hidden for 50 years is the svelte figure of a sassy flapper from the 1920s. The text accompanying her reads: “Sales de Carabaña soap, unbeatable for the skin.” It’s an advertisement that dates …
A note scribbled in pencil on the inside of a cigarette packet, a few stones, a faded photograph… At first glance the objects in this exhibition seem hardly worthy of a second look and yet, once you discover the stories attached to them, they become charged with a terrible significance. Carrying the weight of an …