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Country  Spain
Province  Community of Madrid
Area  605.77 km2
Mayor  Ana Botella (PP)
Population  3.234 million (2012)
Points of interest  Museo Nacional Del Prado, Buen Retiro Park, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Royal Palace of Madrid
Colleges and Universities  Complutense University of Madrid, National University of Distance Education, Autonomous University of Madrid, King Juan Carlos University, Technical University of Madrid


Map of Madrid

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Madrid spain travel guide mustsee attractions


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Madrid in the past, History of Madrid

The first documented reference of the city originates in andalusan times as the Arabic ????? Ma?r?? (AFI [ma?ri?t?]), which was retained in Medieval Spanish as Magerit [ma?e??it]). A wider number of theories have been formulated on possible earlier origins.

Madrid in the past, History of Madrid


The most ancient recorded name of the city "Magerit" (for *Materit or *Mageterit?) comes from the name of a fortress built on the Manzanares River in the 9th century AD, and means "Place of abundant water". If the form is correct, it could be a Celtic place-name from ritu- ford (Old Welsh rit, Welsh rhyd, Old Breton rit, Old Northern French roy) and a first element, that is not clearly identified *mageto derivation of magos field, plain (Old Irish mag field, Breton ma place), or matu bear, that could explain the Latin translation Ursalia.



Madrid Beautiful Landscapes of Madrid

The Madrid region experiences a Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csa) with continental characteristics, with cool to cold winters due to its altitude of 667 m (2,188 ft) above sea level and distance to the sea, including sporadic snowfalls and minimum temperatures often below freezing. Summers are hot with average July temperatures ranging from 32 to 33 °C (90 to 91 °F) depending on location. Summer temperatures occasionally climb over 35 °C (95 °F) during the citys heatwaves. Due to Madrids altitude and dry climate, diurnal ranges are often significant during the summer. The highest recorded temperature was on 24 July 1995 with 42.2 °C (108.0 °F), and the lowest recorded temperature was on 16 January 1945 with ?15.2 °C (4.6 °F). Precipitation is concentrated in the autumn and spring. It is particularly sparse during the summer, taking the form of about two showers and/or thunderstorms a month.



Art and culture

Madrid Culture of Madrid


Madrid Culture of Madrid





Museums and art centres

Madrid is considered one of the top European destinations concerning art museums. Best known is the Golden Triangle of Art, located along the Paseo del Prado and comprising three museums. The most famous one is the Prado Museum, known for such highlights as Diego Velázquezs Las Meninas and Francisco de Goyas La maja vestida and La maja desnuda. The other two museums are the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum, established from a mixed private collection, and the Reina Sofía Museum, where Pablo Picassos Guernica hangs, returned to Spain from New York after more than two decades.


The Reina Sofía Museum, in full Reina Sofía National Art Museum (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, abbreviated as MNCARS), is the Spains national museum of 20th-century art. The museum is mainly dedicated to Spanish art. Highlights of the museum include excellent collections of Spains greatest 20th-century masters, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Juan Gris and Julio González. Certainly the most famous masterpiece in the museum is Picassos painting Guernica. The Reina Sofía also hosts a free-access library specializing in art, with a collection of over 100,000 books, over 3,500 sound recordings and almost 1,000 videos.

The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza) is an art museum that fills the historical gaps in its counterparts collections: in the Prados case this includes Italian primitives and works from the English, Dutch and German schools, while in the case of the Reina Sofía the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, once the second largest private collection in the world after the British Royal Collection, includes Impressionists, Expressionists, and European and American paintings from the second half of the 20th century, with over 1,600 paintings.


















The Fine Arts Circle (Círculo de Bellas Artes), built by Antonio Palacios, is one of Madrids oldest arts centres and one of the most important private cultural centres in Europe. It is a multidisciplinary centre with activities ranging from visual art to literature, from science and philosophy to film and the performing arts. Nowadays it hosts exhibitions, shows, film screenings, conferences and workshops; its radio and magazine Minerva play an important part in the countrys cultural life.



Other art galleries and museums in Madrid include:

Cuisine of the Community of Madrid

Madrid Cuisine of Madrid, Popular Food of Madrid


The smell of local cooking is frequently compared to that of food fried in vegetable oil: churros, calamares a la romana, tortilla de patatas, bocadillos de calamares, patatas bravas, choquitos, gallinejas, among other traditional dishes, which can be smelled cooking no matter the time of day.




Madrid Wikipedia 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