Madrid

IV

Population

Madrid’s population grew dramatically during the 20th century. According to official censuses, in 1900 Madrid had about 500,000 inhabitants, but by 1960 the city proper had 2,259,000 people. By 1970 it grew to 3,146,000. Since that time the total population of Madrid’s metropolitan area has decreased slightly, with a population of 3,128,600 in 2006. Madrid province had a population of 5,718,942 in 2003.

Madrid has long been the center of Spanish government and culture. As a result, it has drawn its population from all over the country. Spain itself has four major languages: Castilian, Galician, Basque, and Catalan. Most of Madrid’s population has come from the Castilian-speaking regions of the country. Castilian, usually referred to as Spanish, is spoken with several regional accents. The dialect most often heard in Madrid is a modified version of the one spoken in the historic region of Old Castile. The people of Madrid are more similar in their language and national background than the populations of most large European cities.

Madrid is also homogeneous in terms of religion, because most Spaniards are members of the Roman Catholic Church. Although most madrileños are not overtly religious and most do not go to church, they are usually baptized, married, and buried in Catholic ceremonies. During most of the rule of General Franco, from 1939 to 1975, the Catholic Church was the only religious group with legal status in Spain. Non-Catholics were severely restricted. After Franco’s death in 1975, the close links between the church and the government began to break, and the 1978 constitution guaranteed religious freedom. At that time Madrid’s small Protestant population began to attend their own churches openly. The most active missionary groups include the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons. The city also has a small Jewish community with active synagogues.

The largest distinctive ethnic minority in the city is the Roma, sometimes called Gypsies. Spain has between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Romani people; because there is nothing legally distinct about them, it is almost impossible to obtain an accurate number of the Roma population. Nevertheless, a large number of the Roma in Spain have been attracted to Madrid. Most Roma speak Spanish, practice Catholicism, and exist successfully in the city. However, they are often the targets of prejudice. For example, they are often associated with marginal activities such as begging, minor theft, and fraud. To help remedy their standing, the Spanish government has designed programs to integrate the Roma into the general population.

---

---

Since about 1970 other ethnic groups have established a presence in Madrid, as in many large cities. Spain’s closeness to Africa has resulted in a small but growing community of immigrants, both legal and illegal, from sub-Saharan Africa. Many Muslim people from nearby Morocco and Algeria have moved to Madrid, giving the city a noticeable Muslim element. Refugees from China, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia have also moved to Madrid. While these communities are small compared to those in other big European cities, they face the challenge of fitting in to Madrid’s relatively homogeneous society.

V

Education and Culture

Madrid is the cultural center of Spain, with theaters, museums, libraries, and educational institutions that attract many scholars and visitors. Of Madrid’s public universities, the oldest and largest is the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, also known as the University of Madrid, with more than 130,000 students. The school originally opened in the nearby town of Alcalá de Henares in 1508 and was moved to Madrid in 1836. Another university, the Universidad Autónoma, was opened in 1968 on the north edge of the city, and in 1977 a third, the Universidad de Alcalá, opened in Alcalá de Henares. The Universidad de Carlos III opened in 1990 on the grounds of an old army base on the south edge of the city.

Madrid has many museums. The most famous is the Museo del Prado The Prado is actually a complex of three facilities on the eastern side of the Paseo del Prado. It has arguably the best collection of European paintings in the world. The museum also houses a fine collection of art from the Spanish school, which includes artists such as El Greco, Diego Velázquez, and Francisco de Goya. Another notable art museum is the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, a museum of contemporary art named for the current queen of Spain. It opened in 1986 as a center for temporary exhibits, and its permanent collection was inaugurated in the early 1990s. The museum specializes in 20th-century paintings, especially works by Spanish artists. It includes one of the most famous paintings by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, Guernica (1937), which portrays a city bombed during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). The painting is an evocative depiction of the tragedy caused by the war.

Madrid also has other notable museums, including the Thyssen-Bornemisza art museum, named after the family that collected its works. The museum houses about 800 paintings, mostly European, in the Villahermosa Palace. The Lazaro Galdiano Museum contains paintings, antique jewelry, porcelain, and tapestries. The National Library, north of the Museo del Prado, has copies of almost every book ever published in Spain, as well as a gallery of Spanish art. The library also shares its building with the National Archaeological Museum. Madrid’s other notable museums include the Museum of the Army, the Museum of the Navy, the Museum of Bullfighting, and the National Museum of Decorative Arts.

Nearby is the Cultural Center of the City of Madrid, which has an art gallery, conference halls, and a zarzuela theater. Zarzuela is the Spanish form of light opera. Scattered around the city are numerous other art galleries, many dedicated to the work of particular Spanish artists. In some ways the most spectacular museum is the Royal Palace itself, where visitors can tour the living quarters of 18th-century and early 20th-century royalty. The palace also houses a large Carriage Museum, the Royal Armory, and a research library of 18th- and 19th–century books and palace records.

Several of Madrid’s historic buildings have become cultural and administrative centers. Near the Royal Palace is the Royal Opera House. Originating in the 1850s, the Opera House was renovated in 1997. The 17th-century Carcel del Corte (City Prison), near the southeast corner of the Plaza Mayor, is now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Casa del Correo, the city’s original post office that dominates the Puerta del Sol, was built by King Charles III in the 1760s. It now houses the government offices of the Autonomous Region of Madrid. The huge Cuartel del Conde Duque (Barracks of the Count–Duke) is located a few blocks north of the Royal Palace. Built in the 1700s as a barracks for the royal cavalry guards, it has been renovated as a cultural center. It now houses the Municipal Archives, the Municipal Periodicals Library, Madrid’s public library, an exhibition gallery, and other cultural facilities.

Madrid has several societies created to promote scholarship in various fields. One of the oldest is the Academy of the Spanish Language, which was founded in 1713. The Academy of History, founded in 1735, has a major library and collection of historical documents. The Academy of Fine Arts, founded in 1757, has an important art museum, as well as an archive that includes engravings from which famous artists, such as Francisco de Goya, made their prints. Another important cultural institution is the Ateneo, which was founded in 1820 and reopened in 1836. The Ateneo has long been a center for cultural and intellectual debate in Madrid and has one of the city’s finest libraries of 19th- and early 20th-century scholarly books.

Not far from Madrid are several important monuments and places of historical interest. The most impressive is the immense monastery-palace called El Escorial, located northwest of Madrid at the foot of the Sierra de Guadarrama. Built by King Philip II from 1563 to 1584, it was Philip’s favorite residence. El Escorial houses the tombs of most of Spain’s kings and queens since Philip, and contains a magnificent art collection and library, which are open to the public.

A few miles away stands a gigantic civil war memorial built by General Franco. Known as the Valle de los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen), it took more than 15 years to complete. It consists of a concrete cross nearly 150 m (nearly 500 ft) high, built on top of a huge crypt tunneled out of solid granite inside the mountain itself. A monument to Franco’s victory in the civil war, and constructed with the forced labor of prisoners of war, it is no longer a very popular place for Spaniards to visit.

Nearer the city at El Pardo, north of Madrid, is La Zarzuela, a small royal palace originally built by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V during the 16th century for use as a hunting lodge. Today it is the residence of the Spanish royal family. South of Madrid is the Royal Palace of Aranjuez, a museum and park noted for its extensive gardens. It was built in the 18th century and was the spring residence of the royal family until the late 19th century because of its mild spring weather. In the opposite direction, near Segovia, is the Royal Palace of La Granja, a relatively small palace. During the 18th century the royal court used it as a summer retreat. The palace gardens include a spectacular collection of fountains inspired by those at the Palace of Versailles in France.

VI

Recreation

Madrid is famous for its numerous sidewalk cafés and café-bars. Madrileños often walk along the avenues in the evenings when the city's many fountains are illuminated, although this activity has declined as many boulevards have become more crowded with automobiles. There are several large parks within the city. The most important is Retiro Park, which is much like New York City’s Central Park. It features many tree-lined avenues, an art exhibition pavilion, an artificially created lake, monuments, fountains, and a rose garden. A second large park is the Casa de Campo, which has a cable railway, monorail, and a modern zoo. Another park, the Parque del Oeste, has a broad area of trees, rose gardens, and walks between the city and the Manzanares River.

Madrid has a growing variety of fitness centers and sports clubs with golf courses and tennis courts. Spaniards, like most Europeans, are fans of soccer, and Madrid has two huge soccer stadiums, each holding as many as 100,000 people. The city also has a large horseracing track and several large public swimming pools. In the winter madrileños can ski in the nearby mountain ranges, the Sierra de Guadarrama and the Sierra de Gredos. In the summer many people leave the city to escape the heat and spend weekends in the mountains. As prosperity increases in Madrid, it is becoming more common for people to build summer homes in the valleys of the two mountain ranges.

VII

Economy

Until 1900 Madrid was almost entirely an administrative city. Its few industries produced goods for consumers in the city itself. Beginning in the early 20th century, Madrid grew to be an important industrial center. The city’s major industrial products include motor vehicles, aircraft, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, processed food, printed materials, and leather goods. Because the area around Madrid has few industrial raw materials such as iron, coal, or oil, the city has little heavy industry. Its factories feature light manufactures and assembly of products, including cars, trucks, appliances, and furniture, using semifinished components made elsewhere.

While Madrid is an important industrial center, it is more important as a center of service activities. These include government, banking, publishing, insurance, and finance. Madrid is also a major center of Spain’s tourist industry. For example, more than 41 million tourists visited the country in 1996; as a result, Madrid has large hotel and restaurant industries.

Madrid is also the center of Spain’s highway and railroad systems. Both systems were built with roads and lines running from Madrid to Spain’s most important seaports. Since the mid-1970s the government has moved aggressively to upgrade both systems, and excellent freeways now connect Madrid to Spain’s other important cities. The railroads have not been developed as rapidly for heavy freight, but the passenger system has improved greatly. Regional commuter lines run between Madrid and the nearby provincial capitals of Segovia, Guadalajara, and Toledo. The country’s first high-speed rail line was begun for the Sevilla World’s Fair in 1992, making it possible to travel between Madrid and Sevilla in about two hours.

The city of Madrid has extensive subway and bus systems. The subway system doubled in size between the early 1960s and the late 1990s, and it now reaches the outlying industrial and residential communities. Madrid’s airport, Barajas Airport, is served by airlines from all over the world and is also the center for an air service that connects most major Spanish cities to Madrid.

VIII

Government

The Spanish Constitution of 1978 authorized the creation of several Autonomous Communities within Spain. It granted them authority over many aspects of local schools, universities, regional planning, and traffic control. These communities were further divided into provinces, although some consist of only one province. The Autonomous Community of Madrid, of which the city of Madrid is the capital, contains a single province. Like the other autonomous communities with only one province, there is no separate provincial government.

The city of Madrid has a city council and mayor, both of which are popularly elected. All Spaniards 18 years of age and older are entitled to vote, and the voter turnout is usually high. Each member of the city council also serves as the city administrator for a particular area of government—for example, culture, police, taxation, or education. The Autonomous Community of Madrid has an elected regional parliament similar to many European legislatures. The regional parliament elects a president who heads the regional government. A cabinet of ministers assists the president with the various administrative subdivisions of the autonomous community’s government. Most offices have four-year terms.

	More from Encarta
	•  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain