Madrid

Madrid became the permanent capital of Spain only in 1561, when Philip II moved the court here from Toledo — making it the youngest of the major Iberian capitals by several centuries. What it lacks in medieval depth it compensates for with scale and ambition. The Bourbon kings who rebuilt it in the 18th century laid out a city of grand plazas, wide diagonals and institutional buildings conceived to project the power of a global empire. The Royal Palace — the Palacio Real — is the largest royal palace in Western Europe by floor area, with 3,418 rooms, though the Spanish royal family has not used it as a primary residence since the 19th century.

The Paseo del Prado runs south from the Cibeles fountain through the museum district. The Prado holds the most significant collection of Spanish painting in the world — Velázquez’s Las Meninas, Goya’s Black Paintings and El Greco’s portraits in a single building. The Reina Sofía a few hundred metres south houses Picasso’s Guernica — the painting made in response to the 1937 bombing of the Basque town — along with a strong collection of 20th-century Spanish and international art. The Thyssen-Bornemisza between them fills the periods that the other two omit. All three are walkable from each other and can be covered, selectively, in a single day.

The Islamic Cultural Centre of Madrid, near the Bernabéu stadium in the north of the city, is one of the largest in Europe and an active mosque with regular prayer times. Halal dining in Madrid is well-established, concentrated in the Lavaípos and Embajadores neighbourhoods in the south of the city centre — the most diverse and accessible halal dining corridor in Madrid. The Santiago Bernabéu, the 81,000-seat home of Real Madrid, is in the north of the city and open for tours on non-match days. The Retiro Park, 125 hectares of gardens and lake east of the Prado, is where the city slows down on weekends.