city, central Spain, capital of the country and of the autonomous region and province of Madrid, on the Manzanares R. It is Spain's largest city and its chief administrative, financial, and transportation center, as well as a national center of the arts. Madrid is located in the heart of the country on the tableland known as the Meseta at an altitude of about 610 m (about 2000 ft) above sea level. The plateau and the nearby Carpetovetónica Range contribute to a climate of cold winters and dry, hot summers.

Economy.

The large and fast-growing Madrid metropolitan area, incorporating such industrial suburbs as Villaverde, Barajas, and Getafe, vies with Barcelona as the nation's principal manufacturing center. Major products include motor vehicles, aircraft, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, processed food, printed materials, and leather goods. Madrid is a major publishing center of the Spanish-speaking world. Large numbers of tourists visit the city each year. The city is also a transportation hub for road and rail connections with the rest of the country, and is served by the Barajas International Airport.

Urban Landscape.

The center of Madrid is the historic Puerta del Sol, a crescent-shaped square. Other major squares include the arcaded Plaza Mayor (built 1617–19; redesigned after the devastating fire of 1790), where bullfights and other spectacles, as well as executions of heretics, were formerly held; the large Plaza de la Cibeles, with fountains and a statue of Cybele (Mother Earth); and the Plaza de Toros Monumental, accommodating the bullring, to the NE.

Madrid's oldest landmark is Casa de los Lujanes (pre-16th cent.). The most famous edifice built during the Habsburg rule (1519–1713) is El Escorial (1563–84), a monastery and palace that was the residence of Philip II. This monument of architecture was named a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site in 1984. Other noteworthy architectural features of that period are the Casa de Cisneros (the mayor's residence), the foreign ministry building, the Segovia Bridge, and the Church of San Isidro el Real. The Royal Palace in Campo del Moro Park; the Royal Spanish Academy; the National Library; the Puerta de Alcalá (in the present-day Plaza de la Independencia); and the central post office (in the Puerta del Sol) were all built during the reign of the Bourbon kings of Spain (1713–1931). Modern architecture is featured in the office buildings in the center of Madrid and in apartment buildings on the outskirts. Other points of interest include the 18th-century church of San Francisco el Grande and the Valley of the Fallen (1940–58), a monument honoring those who died in the Spanish civil war (1936–39).

The city has several grand, tree-lined boulevards and is noted for its fashionable shops. The Gran Via is Madrid's modern main street with cinemas, shops, and banks. Of note among the city's more than 40 parks and gardens are Ritero Park (with botanical and zoological gardens), Campo del Moro, and Oeste Park; El Pardo in NW Madrid—where Zarzuela Palace, residence of Spain's monarch, and the Pardo Palace, the former home of Francisco Franco, are located—and Casa de Campo were once hunting parks.

Madrid is known for its two soccer teams—Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid—that play at Santiago Bernabéu stadium (1947; rebuilt 1992) and Vicente Calderón stadium (1966). Other sports facilities include Las Ventas, a 23,000-seat bullring.

Educational and Cultural Institutions.

Among the many institutions of higher education in the city are the University of Madrid (founded in 1508 in Alcalá de Henares, which was known in ancient times as Complutum, it moved to Madrid in 1836, and was renamed Universidad Complutense de Madrid for its original location in 1970), the Pontifical University (1890), the Autonomous University of Madrid (1968), the Polytechnic University of Madrid (1971), the Open University (1972), the Royal Academy of Music (1830), and Carlos III University of Madrid (1989). Madrid has some of the country's most complete university libraries, such as that founded in 1341 and belonging to the University of Madrid; the Library of El Escorial (1575); the National Library (1712); the Library of the Royal Palace (1760); and the National Historical Archives (1866).

The Prado Museum (1819), with exhibits of famous paintings by El Greco, Diego Velázquez, and Francisco Goya, is a major landmark and one of world's best-known museums. Other museums include the Natural History Museum (1771); the National Archaeological Museum (1867); the Municipal Museum (1929); and the National Anthropological Museum (founded in 1993 by combining of the Museum of the Spanish People and the National Ethnological Museum). The Reina Sofia Art Center, a modern art museum covering the period beginning in 1881 (the year of Pablo Picasso's birth), opened in 1992; some 2000 paintings and sculptures in its collection were transferred from the Prado and other institutions. Originally a private collection of European and American paintings, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum also opened in 1992 and was bought by the Spanish government a year later. Madrid is the site of El Teatro Real (1850), a 1750-seat opera house which reopened in 1997 after a 9-year-long restoration and modernization.

History.

Unlike other major Spanish cities, Madrid became important only after the 10th century, when it was first mentioned as a Moorish fortress, called Majrit or Magerit, guarding Toledo 65 km (40 mi) to the SW. The fortress (alcazar), which stood where the Royal Palace now stands, was captured in 1083 by Alfonso I, king of Castile and (as Alfonso VI) of León, who went on to drive the Moors from Toledo in 1085. Madrid remained small after 1492, when the reconquest of Spain from the Moors was completed, until 1561, when the Habsburg King Philip II moved the court here. Philip III (r. 1598–1621), however, ruled from Valladolid before he officially made Madrid the national capital in 1607.

Madrid subsequently grew rapidly and reached a peak of prosperity and importance in the late 18th century during the time of the French Bourbon monarchs. From 1808 until 1812 the city was ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte's brother, Joseph, following a fierce battle in the Puerta del Sol square, immortalized in Goya's famous painting The Third of May, 1808 (1814–15, Prado). Fighting again occurred during the Spanish civil war, when the Loyalist city resisted a siege before capitulating to the Nationalists in 1939. The city of Madrid and the province of Madrid (established in 1833) were organized into one of Spain's 17 newly formed autonomous communities in 1978.

On March 11, 2004, ten backpack bombs exploded on four commuter trains in Madrid during the morning rush hour, killing 191 people and wounding some 1800. Although authorities initially suggested that the ETA might have been responsible, investigators soon linked the attack to Islamic terrorists associated with the international terrorist network al-Qaeda. The area of Madrid Province is about 7995 sq km (about 3088 sq mi); pop. (2003 est.) 5,718,942. Pop. of the city of Madrid (2003 est.) 3,092,759.