Behind the cheerful facades of central Madrid lie three centuries of organised fear: the tribunal that policed the faith, squares turned into theatres of punishment and the balconies from which the court looked on. In 1680 King Charles II watched an auto-da-fé in the Plaza Mayor that lasted all day. Twelve stops between the seat of the Council of the Inquisition, the convent of princesses, the square of the 1808 uprising and the Franco-era police cells, the court prison, the auto-da-fé of 1680, the scaffold of Rodrigo Calderón, the church of the penitents, the balcony of the 1906 bomb, the cutlers' arch, the gallows square, the Rastro of the slaughterhouses and the district of a Jewish legend without proof. Approximate audio duration: 22 minutes.
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Madrid oscuro: la Inquisición, los autos de fe y la corte que ejecutaba en público
Detrás de las fachadas alegres del centro de Madrid hay tres siglos de miedo organizado: el tribunal que vigilaba la fe, las plazas convertidas en teatro del castigo y los balcones desde donde la corte miraba. En 1680, el rey Carlos II presenció en la Plaza Mayor un auto de fe que duró todo el día. Doce paradas entre la sede del Consejo de la Inquisición, el convento de las princesas, la plaza de los fusilamientos de 1808 y los calabozos de la policía franquista, la cárcel de la corte, el auto de fe de 1680, el cadalso de don Rodrigo Calderón, la iglesia de los penitentes, el balcón de la bomba de 1906, el arco de los cuchilleros, la plaza de la horca, el Rastro de los mataderos y el barrio de una leyenda judía sin pruebas. Duración aproximada de audio: 22 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~22 min of audio · 3.97 km on foot (~1 h walking) · about 1 h 30 min in total
You are on Calle de Torija, a quiet street a few steps from the Senate. Look at the sober buildings lining it. This street was home to the Council of the Supreme and General Inquisition, the body that governed every tribunal of the faith in Spain.
The Spanish Inquisition was born in 1478, through a bull from Pope Sixtus IV requested by the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella. Unlike the medieval inquisition, it answered to the Crown. The king appointed the inquisitor general.
Its first target was the conversos, baptised Jews and their descendants, suspected of practising their old reli…
2
The Convent of Princesses
In front of you is a facade of brick and stone, almost severe. This is the Monastery of the Descalzas Reales. From outside it promises nothing. Inside it holds one of the richest art treasures in Madrid.
It was founded in 1559 by Joanna of Austria, sister of Philip II, in the very palace where she had been born. She gave it to the Poor Clares, barefoot nuns of a strictly enclosed order.
Joanna's life was marked by loss. She was widowed very young by the heir to the Portuguese throne and had to leave her newborn son in Lisbon to return to Spain. That son became King Sebastian, who died in 157…
3
The Clock and the Cellars
You are in the Puerta del Sol. Look at the red-brick building with the clock tower. This is the Real Casa de Correos, built between 1766 and 1768 by the French architect Jacques Marquet. That clock strikes the chimes of New Year's Eve for all of Spain.
On 2 May 1808, this square was one of the scenes of the uprising of Madrid's people against Napoleon's troops. Goya painted the charge of the Mamelukes, the Egyptian horsemen of the French army, against ordinary townspeople.
Repression came that same night and the next day. The French shot dozens of prisoners on the hill of Príncipe Pío and at…
4
A Prison Dressed as a Palace
Look at this building with two towers capped by slate spires. It looks like a palace. It is the Palacio de Santa Cruz, today the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But it was built, between 1629 and 1636, as the Court Prison.
This was the seat of the Sala de Alcaldes de Casa y Corte, the tribunal that judged crimes committed in Madrid, the city where the king lived. The prisoners were held on the lower floors.
Notice its location. The prison is a stone's throw from the Plaza Mayor. That was no accident: the justice of the old regime needed an audience. Judging, imprisoning and punishing all happen…
5
The Great Auto-da-Fé of 1680
You are in the centre of the Plaza Mayor, next to the equestrian statue of Philip III. The square was completed in 1619, to a design by Juan Gómez de Mora. It was Madrid's great open-air hall: market, bullfight, canonisation, royal festival. And also auto-da-fé.
An auto-da-fé was not an execution. It was a public ceremony in which the Inquisition read out the sentences of the accused. Most left with penances: lashes, exile, prison, or the sanbenito, a yellow tunic of shame.
The square hosted several autos in the seventeenth century. The most famous took place on 30 June 1680. King Charles II…
6
The Pride of Don Rodrigo
In front of you is the Casa de la Panadería, its facade covered in paintings. From its balconies the royal family followed the great spectacles of the square. It was the royal box of power.
One of those spectacles was an execution. On 21 October 1621, in this square, Don Rodrigo Calderón, Marquis of Siete Iglesias, was beheaded.
Calderón had been the right-hand man of the Duke of Lerma, the all-powerful favourite of Philip III. He became immensely rich. When Lerma fell, his enemies came for him. He was accused of corruption and murder.
What struck Madrid was his bearing. He climbed the scaf…
7
The Church of the Penitents
You are in front of the church of San Ginés, on Calle del Arenal. It is one of the oldest parishes in Madrid. Behind it, in the passage, is the famous chocolate shop. But what matters now lies beneath.
Under the church there is a vault. For centuries, members of a brotherhood gathered there during Lent to perform the discipline: they whipped their own backs in penance, in the dark, behind closed doors.
It was a widespread practice in sixteenth and seventeenth-century Spain. Physical penance was seen as a way to purify the soul. The same logic, pushed to the extreme, underpinned the Inquisiti…
8
The Bouquet of 1906
You are in front of number 88 Calle Mayor. Look at the balconies on the upper floors. On 31 May 1906, a bomb hidden in a bouquet of flowers fell from one of them.
That day King Alfonso XIII had married the British princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, in the church of San Jerónimo. The procession was returning to the Royal Palace along this street, through a cheering crowd.
The man who threw the bomb was Mateo Morral, a Catalan anarchist who had taken a room in a boarding house in this building. The explosion killed more than twenty people, soldiers of the escort and spectators alike, and…
9
The Butchers' Knives
You are at the foot of the Arco de Cuchilleros, the steepest exit from the Plaza Mayor. Look at the staircase rising towards the square. The difference in height is huge: the square was built on sloping ground.
The street below, the Cava de San Miguel, follows the line of the old moat of the medieval wall. The buildings along it have very tall walls to hold up the square above.
The arch takes its name from the cuchilleros, the craftsmen who made and sharpened knives. They worked here because next door, in the square itself, stood the Casa de la Carnicería, the city's great meat warehouse.
M…
10
The Gallows Square
You are in the Plaza de la Cebada, in the La Latina district. Today a modern market dominates it. Its name comes from the barley once sold here. But for a long time this square was above all a place of execution.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the scaffold stood here. Prisoners left the Court Prison, the one you saw earlier, and were paraded through the streets to this square, where the gallows or, later, the garrotte awaited them.
The best-remembered execution was that of General Rafael del Riego, on 7 November 1823. In 1820 Riego had led the uprising that forced Ferdinand VII …
11
The Trail of Blood
You are in the Plaza de Cascorro, where the Rastro begins. From here the street called Ribera de Curtidores runs steeply downhill. On Sundays it fills with stalls and people.
That street's name says it all. Down below, near the Manzanares river, stood the tanneries, the workshops where hides were cured. And the city's slaughterhouse operated in this area.
According to the most widespread explanation, the word rastro comes from the trail of blood left by carcasses dragged from the slaughterhouse to the tanners. This was the district of stench, of dirty water and of the trades nobody wanted ne…
12
The Jewish Quarter That Never Was
You are on Calle de la Fe, in Lavapiés. At the far end you can see the church of San Lorenzo. This is one of the most mixed districts in Madrid, with residents from all over the world.
For a long time it was said that Lavapiés had been Madrid's medieval Jewish quarter. That the church of San Lorenzo stood on the site of the synagogue. That this street was called Faith Street after the Jews who converted. Even that the district's name, meaning wash-feet, came from washing before prayer.
It is an appealing story, but there is no proof. Historians have found no documents to support it. The smal…
How long does the "Dark Madrid: the Inquisition, the Autos-da-Fé and a Court That Executed in Public" audio tour take?
It has about 22 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 3.97 km walking route (~1 h on foot). Plan roughly 1 h 30 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "The Office of Fear" (coordinates 40.4211, -3.7099). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Madrid and pick "Dark Madrid: the Inquisition, the Autos-da-Fé and a Court That Executed in Public". No account required to start.
