Madrid Spain

Palace to Plaza Mayor Madrid photo walk

Plaza Mayor, Madrid with many windows and a statue on the front

Dusk on the Fourth of July with this American me photo walking from the Royal Palace of Madrid along Calle Mayor toward Plaza Mayor. My photo walk consisted of side-stepping off the main road onto any other street with an interesting surface texture, eye-catching piece of a building, street name tiles and other things that caught my attention as architecturally and artistically interesting to photograph.

a sign on a brick wall
Calle Mayor, Madrid

 

a statue of a person with wings in front of a building
Cathedral Church of the Armed Forces, Madrid (constructed 1671-1744).

 

Calle Mayor is a busy street and I ventured down smaller roads for quiet solitude on a sweltering summer evening for this coastal Californian.

a building with a steeple and a railing
Calle de Madrid square

 

a sign on a brick building
Calle de Madrid street sign

 

Woman in flip flops, roller blades tightly secured to the exterior of her backpack walking two dogs, no leashes. She talked on her phone while in motion. She walked through an exit off the square as I photographed the street signs.

a person walking with a dog in a stone alley
Woman walking dogs in Madrid.

 

I walked the same way, which led to another square with the statue of Don Ãlvaro de Bazán (1526-1588), a Spanish admiral of the Royal Navy with a distinguished career marked by being undefeated in battle. The Spanish Armada invasion of England happened a few months after his death in Lisbon.

a statue in front of a building
Madrid – Admiral Don Alvaro de Bazan statue and Casa de Cisneros palace (1537) in background.

 

a building with a tower and a balcony
Casa de la Villa (1693) was the Mayor of Madrid office building until 2007.

 

When I do a city walk I typically snap photos and at some later time use Google Maps to figure out what I photographed. This approach allows me to integrate cultural and historical knowledge of a place like Madrid. In this case, my sightseeing learning is happening months later, reading Wikipedia and other sources while sitting in a hotel room in Krakow, Poland waiting for the cold December rain to end in a few hours. Quite a contrast to in weather to Madrid on what had been a dry and hot July 4, 2022.

a building with many windows and people walking around
San Miguel Market – Mercado de San Miguel is a food center visited by more than 10 million people a year and commonly seen in Madrid tourism brochures.

 

a building with many motorcycles parked outside
Mercado de San Miguel – San Miguel Market, Madrid.

 

More street sign tiles

a sign on a building
Pasadizo del Panecillo street sign tile, Madrid
a sign on a building
Calle de la Pasa street sign tile, Madrid, Spain.

 

Madrid business murals

a store front with colorful doors
Caso Paco restaurant murals, Madrid.

 

a close-up of a door
Mahou beer mural on business door – Madrid.

 

a red and black store front
La Fontanilla Irish Pub, Madrid.

 

a street light with a building painted on the side
Madrid building murals.

 

people walking down a street
Calle de Toledo leading Arco de Cofreros into Plaza Mayor, Madrid.

 

Plaza Mayor, Madrid

Plaza Mayor, originally built from 1580 to 1619, was the center and main market square of Old Madrid. Several fires over the centuries resulted in reconstruction with the last major structural changes dating from 1790 to 1854. In the center of the large square is a statue of Philip II on horseback.

a statue of a man on a horse
King Philip II (1527-1598) statue installed in 1848 Plaza Mayor, Madrid.

 

Casa de la Panadería was maintained as the focal point of Plaza Mayor after the third great fire of 1790 burned down much of the plaza. The exquisite colorful frescoes between the rows and columns of window shutters were designed by Carlos Franco in 1992. Originally used as Madrid’s main bakery, Casa de la Panadería currently houses the Madrid Tourist Board..

Plaza Mayor, Madrid with many windows and a couple of towers
Casa de la Panadería, Plaza Mayor, Madrid.

 

a building with many windows and a mural on the wall
Casa de la Panadería frescoes, Plaza Mayor, Madrid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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