The beautiful tiled street signs in 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 the 1990s? What might …
Taking place just two years after Franco’s death in 1977, the Atocha Massacre was one of the darkest episodes in Spain’s transition to democracy. However, while the assassins aimed to goad the far right into a bloody exchange that would justify a coup, the wholesale murder of leftist lawyers and trade unionists instead met with …
Psst! Want to buy a blade? Es muy fácil my friend. Just go to the south western corner of Plaza Mayor, enter the Arco de Cuchilleros and head down the steep street – you’ll know you’re in the right place as soon as you catch a whiff of the slaughterhouse – there you’ll find all …
Okay, I admit it, this post is massively biased in favour of liberal leaning mayors. So if you have a problem with improvements to public sanitation and transport, you probably won’t want to read on. No? Alright then, let me tell you about my three favourite mayors of Madrid. Joaquín Vizcaíno (Marqués de Pontejos) 1834 to …
