In 1561 Philip II settled his court in a Castilian town with no cathedral and no university, in the middle of the plateau. From there the Spanish Habsburgs ruled lands on four continents until 1700. Thirteen stops between the gate that faced the sunrise, the square of festivals and autos-da-fé, the tower of the captive French king, the palace of the royal favourites, the wall of the emir who founded Madrid, the cathedral that arrived three centuries late, the fortress that burned on Christmas Eve, the bronze horse balanced on two legs, the convent of princesses, the edge of the old city wall, the gate of the queens, the hall of kingdoms and the museum where the dynasty's collections ended up. Approximate audio duration: 22 minutes.
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Madrid de los Austrias: la villa que se convirtió en capital de un imperio
En 1561 Felipe II instaló la corte en una villa castellana sin catedral ni universidad, en el centro de la meseta. Desde allí los Austrias gobernaron territorios en cuatro continentes hasta 1700. Trece paradas entre la puerta que miraba al sol, la plaza de las fiestas y los autos de fe, la torre del rey francés cautivo, el palacio de los validos, la muralla del emir que fundó Madrid, la catedral que llegó tres siglos tarde, el alcázar que ardió en Nochebuena, el caballo de bronce que se sostiene sobre dos patas, el convento de las princesas, el borde de la vieja cerca, la puerta de las reinas, el salón de los reinos y el museo donde terminaron las colecciones de la dinastía. Duración aproximada de audio: 22 minutos.
Tour stops
13 stops · ~22 min of audio · 5.1 km on foot (~1 h 15 min walking) · about 1 h 45 min in total
You are standing in the Puerta del Sol, the heart of Madrid. Look at the ground in front of the building with the clock: there is the kilometre zero plaque, the point from which Spain's roads are measured.
No gate survives today. But in the fifteenth century an opening in the wall around the town stood here. It was demolished in 1570, when Madrid was already starting to grow out of control.
That growth had a cause. In 1561 Philip II moved the court from Toledo to Madrid. Until then the kings of Castile had no fixed capital: the court travelled from city to city.
People often say Madrid was …
2
The Square of Festivals and Autos-da-Fé
You have entered the Plaza Mayor. A closed rectangle of arcades, iron balconies and slate roofs. In the middle, Philip III on horseback.
This was once a market outside the walls, the Plaza del Arrabal. Philip II ordered it tidied up, but his son finished the job: the architect Juan Gómez de Mora closed the square in 1619.
Look at the building with painted walls. It is the Casa de la Panadería, the bakers' guild house that controlled the price of bread. Kings watched the events below from its balconies. The current murals date from 1992.
And everything happened below. Bullfights, canonisatio…
3
The Tower of the French King
You are in the Plaza de la Villa. It is small, but it holds three centuries of Madrid in three buildings.
Look at the brick house with the tower and the Gothic doorway. It is the Torre de los Lujanes, from the fifteenth century, one of the oldest civic buildings left in the city.
Tradition says that Francis I of France was held prisoner here after Charles V's troops captured him at the battle of Pavia in 1525. What is documented is that the French king spent his captivity in Madrid until he signed the treaty of 1526.
Opposite stands the Casa de la Villa, with its spired towers. It was desig…
4
The Palace of the Royal Favourites
In front of you is a long palace of brick and granite with two monumental doorways. It is the Palacio de los Consejos, though it was born with another name: the Palace of the Duke of Uceda.
It was built in the early seventeenth century for the Duke of Uceda, son of the Duke of Lerma. Father and son were the validos of Philip III: the trusted favourites who in practice governed in the king's name.
Think about what that meant. Philip II personally worked through mountains of paperwork and wrote notes in the margins of reports. His son preferred to delegate, and the favourites gathered enormous…
5
The Wall of the Emir Who Founded Madrid
Look at this wall of flint and limestone. It may seem an unimportant ruin, but it is Madrid's oldest document: a stretch of the ninth-century Islamic wall.
Madrid was not born Christian or imperial. It was founded by the emir of Córdoba, Muhammad I, in the second half of the ninth century, as a fortress guarding the mountain passes towards Toledo.
They called it Mayrit. The name probably refers to the underground watercourses of the area. The garden where you stand is now named after the emir.
Alfonso VI of Castile took the town around 1085. For the following centuries it was a middle-sized…
6
The Capital Without a Cathedral
In front of you is the Almudena Cathedral, white and enormous, with its grey dome. It looks old. It is not: it was consecrated in 1993.
This is one of Madrid's strangest facts. Throughout the Habsburg era, the capital of Europe's most Catholic empire had no cathedral and no bishop of its own.
Madrid belonged to the archdiocese of Toledo, the richest in Castile. Toledo's archbishops had no wish to lose such an important part of their territory.
There were plans for a great church as early as the seventeenth century, but they came to nothing. The diocese of Madrid was only created in 1885, an…
7
The Fortress That Burned on Christmas Eve
You are in the Plaza de la Armería, facing the Royal Palace. It is one of the largest palaces in Europe. But it is not the palace of the Habsburgs.
On this very spot, above the emir's fortress, stood the Royal Alcázar. Charles V refurbished it and Philip II made it the residence of the court. From its offices the empire was governed.
Outside it was a severe building, with towers and spires. Inside it held one of the finest painting collections in the world. Velázquez, court painter to Philip IV, worked and lived here.
In its rooms he painted Las Meninas, in 1656. When you look at that pictu…
8
The Horse on Two Legs and the Monastery in the Mountains
You are in the Plaza de Oriente. In the centre, Philip IV rides a rearing horse. Look closely: the whole statue rests only on the hind legs and the tail.
It was cast in Florence by the sculptor Pietro Tacca and reached Madrid in 1640. To give the king a faithful face, models were sent from Madrid, including a portrait painted by Velázquez.
Achieving that balance in bronze was a technical challenge. The front is hollow and the back solid. An often repeated tradition says Galileo Galilei was consulted on the calculations.
Philip IV reigned for forty-four years, from 1621 to 1665. He was the k…
9
The Convent of Princesses
In front of you is a facade of brick and stone, simple, almost unadorned. It is the Monastery of the Descalzas Reales. Behind these walls a community of Poor Clare nuns still lives.
There was once a palace here, and in it was born in 1535 Joanna of Austria, daughter of Charles V and sister of Philip II. Widowed very young by the heir to Portugal, she governed Spain as regent while her brother was abroad.
In 1559 she founded this convent of barefoot Franciscan nuns in the house where she was born. She made it a refuge for women of the royal family and the high nobility.
The most illustrious …
10
The Edge of Habsburg Madrid
You have reached the Plaza de Cibeles. In the centre, the goddess Cybele in her chariot drawn by lions. Behind her, the white palace that is now Madrid's city hall.
Nothing you see is Habsburg. The fountain was made under Charles III, in the 1780s. The palace was built between 1907 and 1919 as the main post office, and the city council moved here in 2007 from the Plaza de la Villa.
But this spot does tell something about that era. In the seventeenth century this was the eastern edge of Madrid. Beyond it lay orchards, convents and the promenade of the Prado de los Jerónimos.
In 1625 Philip I…
11
The Gate of the Queens
In front of you is the Puerta de Alcalá, with its five granite openings. It was one of the gates in Philip IV's wall, on the road leading to Alcalá de Henares and Aragon.
The gate you see dates from 1778, the work of the architect Francesco Sabatini for Charles III. But an earlier, much more modest gate from Habsburg times stood here first.
That first Puerta de Alcalá was raised in 1599 for the ceremonial entry of Margaret of Austria, wife of Philip III. Queens arrived from far away, and the city welcomed them with arches, parades and festivities.
Notice the detail: nearly all the queens of…
12
The Hall of Kingdoms
You are in front of a brick building with slate towers at its corners. It is the Hall of Kingdoms, one of only two surviving parts of the Buen Retiro Palace.
In the 1630s the Count-Duke of Olivares, Philip IV's favourite, drove the construction of a second palace for the king, here on the outskirts of town. It went up in a few years, with cheap materials and great haste.
The park you have just crossed was its garden, with ponds for water festivals, hermitages and a theatre. It was the stage of the Golden Age court, where plays by Calderón had their premieres.
This hall was the great ceremon…
13
Where the Habsburg Collections Ended Up
You are in front of the Prado Museum, beside the statue of Velázquez. The long building of brick and stone was designed by Juan de Villanueva in 1785, for Charles III, as a natural science cabinet.
It opened as a painting museum in 1819, under Ferdinand VII. But much of what hangs inside was assembled by the Habsburgs over almost two centuries.
Charles V made Titian his painter. The portrait of the emperor on horseback at the battle of Mühlberg, from 1548, is here. It is the image of power this dynasty wanted to leave behind.
Philip II went on buying Titian and gathered works by Hieronymus …
How long does the "Habsburg Madrid: the Small Town That Became the Capital of an Empire" audio tour take?
It has about 22 minutes of audio across 13 stops and a 5.1 km walking route (~1 h 15 min on foot). Plan roughly 1 h 45 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "A Small Town Chosen to Rule the World" (coordinates 40.4169, -3.7035). 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 "Habsburg Madrid: the Small Town That Became the Capital of an Empire". No account required to start.
