Culture
[edit]
Architecture[edit]
Main article: Architecture of Madrid
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Little medieval architecture is preserved in Madrid, mostly in the Almendra Central, including the San Nicolás and San Pedro el Viejo church towers, the church of San Jerónimo el Real, and the Bishop's Chapel. Nor has Madrid retained much Renaissance architecture, other than the Bridge of Segovia and the Convent of Las Descalzas Reales.
The Plaza Mayor, built in the 16th century
Philip II moved his court to Madrid in 1561 and transformed the town into a capital city. During the Early Habsburg period, the import of European influences took place, underpinned by the monicker of Austrian style. The Austrian style features Austrian, Italian, Dutch and Spanish influences, reflecting on the international preeminence of the Habsburgs. During the second half of the 16th century, the use of pointy slate spires in order to top structures such as church towers was imported to Spain from Central Europe. Slate spires and roofs consequently became a staple of the Madrilenian architecture at the time.
Stand out architecture in the city dating back to the early 17th century includes several buildings and structures, most of them attributed to Juan Gómez de Mora such as the Palace of the Duke of Uceda (1610), the Monastery of La Encarnación (1611–1616); the Plaza Mayor (1617–1619) or the Cárcel de Corte (1629–1641), known as the Santa Cruz Palace. The 1600s saw the construction of the former City Hall, the Casa de la Villa.
The Imperial College church model dome was imitated in all of Spain. Pedro de Ribera introduced Churrigueresque architecture to Madrid. The Cuartel del Conde-Duque, the church of Montserrat, and the Bridge of Toledo are among the best examples.
The Royal Palace of Madrid, built in the 18th century
The reign of the Bourbons during the eighteenth century marked a new era in Madrid. Philip V tried to complete King Philip II's vision of urbanisation of Madrid. Philip V built a palace in line with French taste, and buildings such as St. Michael's Basilica and the Church of Santa Bárbara. King Charles III beautified the city and endeavoured to convert Madrid into one of the great European capitals. He pushed forward the construction of the Prado Museum (originally intended as a Natural Science Museum), the Puerta de Alcalá, the Royal Observatory, the Basilica of San Francisco el Grande, the Casa de Correos in Puerta del Sol, the Real Casa de la Aduana, and the General Hospital, which now houses the Reina Sofia Museum and Royal Conservatory of Music. The Paseo del Prado, surrounded by gardens and decorated with neoclassical statues, is an example of urban planning. The Duke of Berwick ordered the construction of the Liria Palace.
In the early 19th century, the Peninsular War, the loss of viceroyalties in the Americas, and continuing coups limited the city's architectural development. The Royal Theatre, the National Library of Spain, the Palace of the Senate, and the Congress were built in this era. The Segovia Viaduct linked the Royal Alcázar to the southern part of town.
The Círculo de Bellas Artes
A list of key figures of madrilenian architecture during the 19th and 20th centuries includes authors such as Narciso Pascual y Colomer, Francisco Jareño y Alarcón, Francisco de Cubas, Juan Bautista Lázaro de Diego, Ricardo Velázquez Bosco, Antonio Palacios, Secundino Zuazo, Luis Gutiérrez Soto, Luis Moya Blanco [es] and Alejandro de la Sota.
From the mid-19th century until the Civil War, Madrid modernised and built new neighbourhoods and monuments. The expansion of Madrid developed under the Plan Castro, resulting in the neighbourhoods of Salamanca, Argüelles, and Chamberí. Arturo Soria conceived the linear city and built the first few kilometres of the road that bears his name, which embodies the idea. The Gran Vía was built using different styles that evolved over time: French style, eclectic, art deco, and expressionist.
Art Nouveau in Madrid, known as Modernismo was developed at the turn of the century, in concert with its appearance elsewhere in Europe, including Barcelona and Valencia. Antonio Palacios built a series of buildings inspired by the Viennese Secession, such as the Palace of Communication, the Círculo de Bellas Artes, and the Río de La Plata Bank (now Instituto Cervantes). Other notable buildings include the Bank of Spain, the neo-Gothic Almudena Cathedral, Atocha Station, and the Catalan art-nouveau Palace of Longoria. Las Ventas Bullring was built, and the Market of San Miguel.
The Edificio España
Following the Francoist takeover that ensued the end of Spanish Civil war, architecture experienced an involution, discarding rationalism and, eclecticism notwithstanding, going back to an overall rather "outmoded" architectural language, with the purpose of turning Madrid into a capital worthy of the "Immortal Spain". Iconic examples of this period include the Ministry of the Air (a case of herrerian revival) and the Edificio España, presented as the tallest building in Europe when it was inaugurated in 1953. Many of these buildings distinctly combine the use of brick and stone in the façades. The Casa Sindical marked a breaking point as it was the first to reassume rationalism, although that relinking to modernity was undertaken through the imitation of the Italian Fascist architecture.
In the late 20th century, with the advent of Spanish economic development, skyscrapers, such as Torre Picasso, Torres Blancas and Torre BBVA, and the Gate of Europe were built. In the 2000s, the four tallest skyscrapers in Spain were built and together form the Cuatro Torres Business Area. Terminal 4 at Madrid-Barajas Airport was inaugurated in 2006 and won several architectural awards. Terminal 4 is one of the world's largest terminal areas and features glass panes and domes in the roof, which allow natural light to pass through.
Museums and cultural centres[edit]
See also: List of museums in Madrid
Las Meninas, by Diego Velázquez, 1656, Prado Museum
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 major museums: the Prado Museum, the Reina Sofía Museum, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.
The Prado Museum (Museo del Prado) is a museum and art gallery that features one of the world's finest collections of European art, from the 12th century to the early 19th century, based on the former Spanish Royal Collection. It has the best collection of artworks by Goya, Velázquez, El Greco, Rubens, Titian, Hieronymus Bosch, José de Ribera, and Patinir, as well as works by Rogier van der Weyden, Raphael Sanzio, Tintoretto, Veronese, Caravaggio, Van Dyck, Albrecht Dürer, Claude Lorrain, Murillo, and Zurbarán, among others. Some of the standout works exhibited at the museum include Las Meninas, La maja vestida, La maja desnuda, The Garden of Earthly Delights, The Immaculate Conception and The Judgement of Paris.
The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza) is an art museum that fills the historical gaps in its counterparts' collections: in the Prado's 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.
Queen Sofía National Museum Art Centre
The Reina Sofía National Art Museum (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía; MNCARS) is Madrid's national museum of 20th-century art and houses Pablo Picasso's 1937 anti-war masterpiece, Guernica. Other highlights of the museum, which is mainly dedicated to Spanish art, include excellent collections of Spain's greatest 20th-century masters including Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Picasso, Juan Gris, and Julio González. The Reina Sofía also hosts a free-access art library.
A cloister in the National Archaeological Museum (MAN) showcasing prehistoric items from the Iberian Peninsula, including the Mausoleum of Pozo Moro
The National Archaeological Museum of Madrid (Museo Arqueológico Nacional) shows archaeological finds from Prehistory to the 19th century, including Roman mosaics, Greek ceramics, Islamic art and Romanesque art, especially from the Iberian Peninsula, distributed over three floors. An iconic item in the museum is the Lady of Elche, an Iberian bust from the 4th century BC. Other major pieces include the Lady of Baza, the Lady of Cerro de los Santos, the Lady of Ibiza, the Bicha of Balazote, the Treasure of Guarrazar, the Pyxis of Zamora, the Mausoleum of Pozo Moro and a napier's bones. In addition, the museum has a reproduction of the polychromatic paintings in the Altamira Cave.
The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando (Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando) houses a fine art collection of paintings ranging from the 15th to 20th centuries. The academy is the headquarters of the Madrid Academy of Art.
CaixaForum Madrid is a post-modern art gallery in the centre of Madrid, next to the Prado Museum.
The Royal Palace of Madrid, a massive building characterised by its luxurious rooms, houses rich collections of armours and weapons, as well as the most comprehensive collection of Stradivarius in the world. The Museo de las Colecciones Reales is a future museum intended to host the most outstanding pieces of the Royal Collections part of the Patrimonio Nacional. Located next to the Royal Palace and the Almudena, Patrimonio Nacional has tentatively scheduled its opening for 2021.
The Museo de América
The Museum of the Americas (Museo de América) is a national museum that holds artistic, archaeological, and ethnographic collections from the Americas, ranging from the Paleolithic period to the present day.
Other notable museums include the National Museum of Natural Sciences (the Spain's national museum of natural history), the Naval Museum, the Convent of Las Descalzas Reales (with many works of Renaissance and Baroque art, and Brussels tapestries inspired by paintings of Rubens), the Museum of Lázaro Galdiano (housing a collection specialising in decorative arts, featuring a collection of weapons that features the sword of Pope Innocent VIII), and the National Museum of Decorative Arts.
Institutions include the National Museum of Romanticism (focused on 19th century Romanticism), the Museum Cerralbo, the National Museum of Anthropology (featuring as highlight a Guanche mummy from Tenerife), the Sorolla Museum (focused in the namesake Valencian Impressionist painter, also including sculptures by Auguste Rodin, part of Sorolla's personal effects), or the History Museum of Madrid (housing pieces related to the local history of Madrid), the Wax Museum of Madrid, and the Railway Museum (located in the building that was once the Delicias Station).
Major cultural centres in the city include the Fine Arts Circle (one of Madrid's oldest arts centres and one of the most important private cultural centres in Europe, hosting exhibitions, shows, film screenings, conferences and workshops), the Conde Duque cultural centre or the Matadero Madrid, a cultural complex (formerly an abattoir) located by the river Manzanares. The Matadero, created in 2006 with the aim of "promoting research, production, learning, and diffusion of creative works and contemporary thought in all their manifestations", is considered the third most valued cultural institution in Madrid among art professionals.
Language[edit]
The usual language in Madrid is Peninsular Spanish.
It is in the transition between northern and southern dialects.
Typical features are:
Yeísmo, calló and cayó sound alike among all social classes. According to Alonso Zamora Vicente [es], yeísmo has extended from Madrid across Spain.
Aspiration of coda /s/.
Frequent elision of final /d/ ([maˈðɾi]) and devoicing /θ/ ([maˈðɾiθ] ⓘ) coexist with the standard preservation ([maˈðɾið] ⓘ) realised with varying degrees of relaxation.
Leísmo, laísmo and loísmo. According to Samuel Gili Gaya [es], in Madrid speech, pronoun le is specialised in the masculine and pronoun la in the feminine, for direct and indirect objects.
The arrival to Madrid of a substantial number of immigrants from Latin America (such as Ecuadorians) has induced processes of dialectal convergence and divergence in the city.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Madrid youth created their own slang, Cheli.
Literature[edit]
Madrid has been one of the great centres of Spanish literature. Some of the most distinguished writers of the Spanish Golden Century were born in Madrid, including Lope de Vega (author of Fuenteovejuna and The Dog in the Manger), who reformed the Spanish theatre, a project continued by Calderon de la Barca (author of Life is a Dream). Francisco de Quevedo, who criticised the Spanish society of his day, and author of El Buscón, and Tirso de Molina, who created the character Don Juan, were born in Madrid. Cervantes and Góngora also lived in the city, although they were not born there. The Madrid homes of Lope de Vega, Quevedo, Gongora, and Cervantes still exist, and they are all in the Barrio de las Letras (Literary Neighbourhood). Other writers born in Madrid in later centuries include Leandro Fernandez de Moratín, Mariano José de Larra, Jose de Echegaray (Nobel Prize in Literature), Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Dámaso Alonso, Enrique Jardiel Poncela and Pedro Salinas.
The "Barrio de las Letras" owes its name to the intense literary activity taking place there during the 16th and 17th centuries. Some of the most prominent writers of the Spanish Golden Age lived here, such as Lope de Vega, Quevedo, and Góngora, and it contained the Cruz and Príncipe Theatres, two of the most important in Spain. At 87 Calle de Atocha, on the northern end of the neighbourhood, was the printing house of Juan de la Cuesta, where the first edition of Don Quixote was typeset and printed in 1604. Most of the literary routes are articulated[further explanation needed] along the Barrio de las Letras, where you can find scenes from novels of the Siglo de Oro and more recent works like "Bohemian Lights".[further explanation needed] Although born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, realist writer Benito Pérez Galdós made Madrid the setting for many of his stories; there is a giidebook to the Madrid of Galdós (Madrid galdosiano).
Interior of the National Library of Spain
Madrid is home to the Royal Spanish Academy, the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language, which governs, with statutory authority, over Spanish, preparing, publishing, and updating authoritative reference works on it. The academy's motto (lema, in Spanish) states its purpose: it cleans the language, stabilises it, and gives it brilliance ("Limpia, fija y da resplendor"). Madrid is home to another international cultural institution, the Instituto Cervantes, whose task is the promotion and teaching of the Spanish language as well as the dissemination of the culture of Spain and Hispanic America. The National Library of Spain is the largest major public library in Spain. The library's collection has more than 26,000,000 items, including 15,000,000 books and other printed materials, 30,000 manuscripts, 143,000 newspapers and serials, 4,500,000 graphic materials, 510,000 music scores, 500,000 maps, 600,000 sound recording, 90,000 audiovisuals, 90,000 electronic documents, and more than 500,000 microforms.
Cuisine[edit]
Three squid sandwichesPatatas bravas, a very common bar snack served as tapa
The Madrilenian cuisine has received plenty of influences from other regions of Spain and its own identity actually relies in its ability to assimilate elements from the immigration.
The cocido madrileño, a chickpea-based stew, is one of the most emblematic dishes of the Madrilenian cuisine. The callos a la madrileña [es] is another traditional winter specialty, usually made of cattle tripes. Other offal dishes typical in the city include the gallinejas [es] or grilled pig's ear. Fried squid has become a culinary specialty in Madrid, often consumed in sandwich as bocata de calamares.
Other generic dishes commonly accepted as part of the Madrilenian cuisine include the potaje, the sopa de ajo (Garlic soup), the Spanish omelette, the besugo a la madrileña [es] (bream), caracoles a la madrileña [es] (snails, sp. Cornu aspersum) or the soldaditos de Pavía, the patatas bravas (consumed as snack in bars) or the gallina en pepitoria [es] (hen or chicken cooked with the yolk of hard-boiled eggs and almonds) to name a few.
Traditional desserts include torrijas (a variant of French toast consumed during Easter) and bartolillos [es].
See also: Cuisine of the Community of Madrid
Nightlife[edit]
Nightlife in the Centro District
Madrid is an international hub of highly active and diverse nightlife with bars, dance bars and nightclubs staying open well past midnight. Madrid is reputed to have a "vibrant nightlife". Some of the highlight bustling locations include the surroundings of the Plaza de Santa Ana, Malasaña and La Latina (particularly near the Cava Baja [es]). It is one of the city's main attractions with tapas bars, cocktail bars, clubs, jazz lounges, live music venues and flamenco theatres. Most nightclubs liven up by 1:30 a.m.and stay open until at least 6 a.m.
Nightlife flourished in the 1980s while Madrid's mayor Enrique Tierno Galván (PSOE) was in office, nurturing the cultural-musical movement known as La Movida. Nowadays, the Malasaña area is known for its alternative scene.
The area of Chueca has also become a hot spot in the Madrilenian nightlife, especially for the gay population. Chueca is known as gay quarter, comparable to the Castro District in San Francisco.
See also: La Movida Madrileña
Bohemian culture[edit]
Nights in Malasaña are often crowded.
The city has venues for performing alternative art and expressive art. They are mostly located in the centre of the city, including in Ópera, Antón Martín, Chueca and Malasaña. There are also several festivals in Madrid, including the Festival of Alternative Art, and the Festival of the Alternative Scene.
The neighbourhood of Malasaña, as well as Antón Martín and Lavapiés, hosts several bohemian cafés/galleries. These cafés are typified with period or retro furniture or furniture found on the street, a colourful, nontraditional atmosphere inside, and usually art displayed each month by a new artist, often for sale. Cafés include the retro café Lolina and bohemian cafés La Ida, La Paca and Café de la Luz in Malasaña, La Piola in Huertas and Café Olmo and Aguardiente in Lavapiés.
In the neighbourhood of Lavapiés, there are also "hidden houses", which are illegal bars or abandoned spaces where concerts, poetry readings and the famous Spanish botellón (a street party or gathering that is now illegal but rarely stopped).
Classical music and opera[edit]
The Teatro Real
The Auditorio Nacional de Música
is the main venue for classical music concerts in Madrid. It is home to the Spanish National Orchestra, the Chamartín Symphony Orchestra and the venue for the symphonic concerts of the Community of Madrid Orchestra and the Madrid Symphony Orchestra. It is also the principal venue for orchestras on tour playing in Madrid.
The Teatro Real is the main opera house in Madrid, located just in front of the Royal Palace, and its resident orchestra is the Madrid Symphony Orchestra. The theatre stages around seventeen opera titles (both own productions and co-productions with other major European opera houses) per year, as well as two or three major ballets and several recitals.
The Teatro de la Zarzuela is mainly devoted to Zarzuela (the Spanish traditional musical theatre genre), as well as operetta and recitals. The resident orchestra of the theatre is the Community of Madrid Orchestra.
The Teatro Monumental is the concert venue of the RTVE Symphony Orchestra.
Other concert venues for classical music are the Fundación Joan March and the Auditorio 400, devoted to contemporary music.
Feasts and festivals[edit]
San Isidro[edit]
Festivities of San Isidro Labrador in the pradera, 2007
The local feast par excellence is the Day of Isidore the Laborer (San Isidro Labrador), the patron Saint of Madrid, celebrated on 15 May. It is a public holiday. According to tradition, Isidro was a farmworker and well manufacturer born in Madrid in the late 11th century, who lived a pious life and whose corpse was reportedly found to be incorrupt in 1212. Already very popular among the madrilenian people, as Madrid became the capital of the Hispanic Monarchy in 1561 the city council pulled efforts to promote his canonisation; the process started in 1562. Isidro was beatified in 1619 and the feast day set on 15 May (he was finally canonised in 1622).
On 15 May the Madrilenian people gather around the Hermitage of San Isidro [es] and the Prairie of San Isidro [es] (on the right-bank of the Manzanares) often dressed with checkered caps (parpusas [es]) and kerchiefs (safos) characteristic of the chulapos and chulapas, dancing chotis and pasodobles, eating rosquillas and barquillos.
LGBT pride[edit]
Main article: Madrid Pride
High heels race in WorldPride Madrid 2017
The Madrilenian LGBT Pride has grown to become the event bringing the most people together in the city each year as well as one of the most important Pride celebrations worldwide.
Madrid's Pride Parade began in 1977, in the Chueca neighbourhood, which also marked the beginning of the gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual rights movement after being repressed for forty years in a dictatorship. This claiming of LGBT rights has allowed the Pride Parade in Madrid to grow year after year, becoming one of the best in the world. In 2007, this was recognised by the European Pride Organisers Association (EPOA) when Madrid hosted EuroPride. It was hailed by the then President of the EPOA as "the best EuroPride in history".
In 2017, Madrid celebrated the 40th anniversary of their first Pride Parade by hosting the WorldPride Madrid 2017. Numerous conferences, seminars and workshops as well as cultural and sports activities took place at the festival, the event being a "kids and family pride" and a source of education. More than one million people attended the pride's central march. The main purpose of the celebration was presenting Madrid and the Spanish society in general as a multicultural, diverse, and tolerant community. The 2018 Madrid Pride roughly had 1.5 million participants.p. 34
Since Spain legalised same-sex marriage in July 2005, Madrid has become one of the largest hot spots for LGBT culture. With about 500 businesses aimed toward the LGBT community, Madrid has become a "Gateway of Diversity".
Other[edit]
People in costumes during the proclamation (pregón) of the 2013 Carnival
Despite often being labelled as "having no tradition" by foreigners, the Carnival was popular in Madrid already in the 16th century. However, during the Francoist dictatorship the carnival was under government ban and the feasts suffered a big blow. It has been slowly recovering since then.
Other signalled days include the regional day (2 May) commemorating the Dos de Mayo Uprising (a public holiday), the feasts of San Antonio de la Florida (13 June), the feast of the Virgen de la Paloma (circa 15 August) or the day of the co-patron of Madrid, the Virgin of Almudena (9 November), although the latter's celebrations are rather religious in nature.
The most important musical event in the city is the Mad Cool festival; created in 2016, it reached an attendance of 240,000 during the three-day long schedule of the 2018 edition.p. 33
Bullfighting[edit]
View of Las Ventas bullring in Madrid from Calle de Alcalá
Madrid hosts the largest plaza de toros (bullring) in Spain, Las Ventas, established in 1929. Las Ventas is considered by many to be the world centre of bullfighting and has a seating capacity of almost 25,000. Madrid's bullfighting season begins in March and ends in October. Bullfights are held every day during the festivities of San Isidro (Madrid's patron saint) from mid May to early June, and every Sunday, and public holiday, the rest of the season. The style of the plaza is Neo-Mudéjar. Las Ventas also hosts music concerts and other events outside of the bullfighting season. There is great controversy in Madrid with bullfighting.[failed verification]
Sport[edit]
Main article: Sport in Madrid
Football[edit]
Main article: Football in Madrid
The Madrid Derby at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, January 2015
Real Madrid, founded in 1902, compete in La Liga and play their home games at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. The club is one of the most widely supported teams in the world and their supporters are referred to as Madridistas or Merengues (Meringues). Real's supporters in Madrid are often believed to be constituted principally of members of the middle classes, however, this claim is in dispute and has not been proved. It has also been suggested that a large proportion of Real Madrid's fans are members of the working class. The club was selected as the best club of the 20th century, being the fifth most valuable sports club in the world and the most successful Spanish football club with a total of 104 official titles (this includes a record 15 European Cups and a record 36 La Liga trophies).
Atlético Madrid, founded in 1903, also compete in La Liga and play their home games at the Metropolitano Stadium. The club is well-supported in the city, having the third national fan base in Spain and their supporters are referred to as Atléticos or Colchoneros (The Mattressers). Atlético is believed to draw its support mostly from working class citizens. The club is considered an elite European team, having won three UEFA Europa League titles and reached three European Cup finals. Domestically, Atletico have won eleven league titles and ten Copa del Reys.
Rayo Vallecano, founded in 1924, are the third most important football team of the city, based in the Vallecas neighbourhood. They currently compete in La Liga, having secured promotion in 2021. The club's fans tend to be very left-wing and are known as Buccaneers.
Getafe CF, founded in 1983, also compete in La Liga and play their home games at the Estadio Coliseum. The club was promoted to La Liga for the first time in 2004, and participated in the top level of Spanish football for twelve years between 2004 and 2016, and again since 2017.
CD Leganés, founded in 1928, compete in Segunda División and play their home games at the Estadio Municipal de Butarque. In the 2015–16 season, for the first time in their history, Leganés earned promotion to La Liga. They remained in the top flight for four seasons, reaching a peak of 13th in 2018–19, before relegation in the last game of the following season, a 2–2 home draw with Real Madrid.
Madrid has hosted five European Cup/Champions League finals: four at the Santiago Bernabéu, and the 2019 final at the Metropolitano. The Bernabéu also hosted the Euro 1964 Final (which Spain won) and the 1982 FIFA World Cup Final.
Basketball[edit]
The 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup Final at the Palacio de Deportes
Real Madrid Baloncesto, founded in 1931, compete in Liga ACB and play their home games at the Palacio de Deportes (WiZink Center). Real Madrid's basketball section, similar to its football team, is the most successful team in Europe, with a record 11 EuroLeague titles. Domestically, they have clinched a record 36 league titles and a record 28 Copa del Reys.
Club Baloncesto Estudiantes, founded in 1948, compete in LEB Oro and also play their home games at the Palacio de Deportes (WiZink Center). Until 2021, Estudiantes was one of only three teams that have never been relegated from Spain's top division. Historically, its achievements include three cup titles and four league runners-up placements.
Madrid has hosted six European Cup/EuroLeague finals, the last two at the Palacio de Deportes. The city also hosted the final matches for the 1986 and 2014 FIBA World Cups, and the EuroBasket 2007 final (all held at the Palacio de Deportes).
Events[edit]
The 2009 Madrid Open Women's Final at the Caja Mágica
The main annual international event in cycling, the Vuelta a España (La Vuelta), is one of the three worldwide prestigious three-week-long Grand Tours, and its final stages takes place in Madrid on the first Sunday of September. In tennis, the city hosts Madrid Open, both male and female versions, played on clay court. The event is part of the nine ATP Masters 1000 and nine WTA 1000 tournaments. It is held during the first week of May in the Caja Mágica. Additionally, Madrid hosts the finals of the major tournament for men's national teams, Davis Cup, since 2019.
Formula One[edit]
In January 2024, Formula One announced that Madrid will host the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix around the IFEMA exhibition centre [es] in Campo de las Naciones [es].
