We use the pillars of the past to build our present and plan our future, and this is why the inhabitants and visitors in a region such as Madrid have a duty to learn about its history. Come and thrill to stories of forgotten deeds, curious facts, legends and episodes from the lives of our forebears, from the most illustrious down to the most anonymous.

• Gate of Toledo
  Gate of Toledo, the last Madrid decorative gate
• Oriente Square statues
  These statues, spread over diverse Madrid sets, don’t have a chronological order and different dinasties are mixed...
• Graffiti, ephemeral art history
  It’s almost impossible go around some Madrid quarter as Malasaña or Lavapiés without watching hundreds of graffitis.
• The Court moves to Valladolid
  Arts Quarter, also known as Huertas or Santa Ana square, is much more than a set of streets, squares, palaces, churches...
• Forest of the Departed
  11-M victims homage ‘La Chopera’, transformed into a permanent homage to 11th march 2004 Madrid train bombings victims.
• Current Duchess of Alba chaired in 1945 her ancestor’s corpse exhumation
  Thirteenth Duches of Alba died in bizarre circunstances 23rd July 1802, after eating an ice cream made with ice from Fuencarral street ‘neveros’.
• Monument Alfonso XII in the Retiro in Madrid
  After countless problems between all the artists...
• The building of La Equitativa
  In 1920, Banco Español de Crédito, purchased the building from the insurance company, of American capital, La Equitativa.
• Luis Candelas, the urban bandit
  This famous urban bandit was born in Madrid in 1806; son of a carpenter named José.
• Killer, the tornado that struck Madrid in the afternoon of May 12th, 1886
  The dairy of the Meteorological Observatory of El Retiro recorded an event that shocked Spain on May 12th, 1886.
• Our Lady of Madrid
  At the church of St. Vincent Ferrer -in Ibiza street, that close to the Gregorio Marañón Hospital that...
• San Pedro el Viejo, a legacy from the Arabic
  As far as we know from the references of the temple, it is believed that it was transferred to its current location on the Nuncio street.
• Here lived Ratón Pérez
  A commemorative plaque indicates the residence of Ratón Pérez, in the ground floor of number 8, Arenal street.
• Humoristic group in Cortes square
  Five figures of Mingote, offer daily a parade of the Madrilenian pose of passed centuries, from the balcony of the central seat of Groupama in the Cortes square at 12 in the morning.
• Pepita Tudo, the model for Goya’s Majas
  In the collection of the Fundación Lazaro Galdeano there is a miniature of Doña Josefa Tudo y Catalá, Countess of Castillo Fiel, dowager Princess of la Paz y de Bassano, dowager Duchess of la Alcudia...
• The story of Baltasar Bachero
  Baltasar was a humble Madrilenian of Lavapiés...
• Villa Rosa, the first night club
  A pub with tradition frequented by people of the bull world and the best of flamenco.
• Virgen de la Almudena
  The statue of Nuestra Señora de la Almudena is possibly by the Dutchman Diego Copin, who worked in Toledo between the 15th and 16th centuries...
• Visigothic remains under the Almudena Cathedral
  Could this be proof of the existence of a Visigothic construction dating from before the Arab "Ribat" in Madrid, and that the community of Visigoths who settled here were more than merely simple shepherds and farmers?
• Juanelo Turriano, an engineer amid kings and legendary gods
  On the south façade of the cornice of the Queen's tower, amid legendary gods and heroes of Spanish antiquity, there is a steeple dedicated to Osiris in which there is a bust...
• The Wild Animal House in the Retiro Park
  Nearly 350 have passed since the existence of la Pajarera, or bird house in the gardens of the Buen Retiro Palace through to the modern facilities of the Zoo-Aquarium in the Casa de Campo, and in that time exotic animals...
• Legendary gods and kings
  on the cornice of the Royal Palace
  In 1742, Philip V and his architects Sachetti, Bonavia and Ruiz set out to plan in advance the decoration to be used on the façades of the new palace which was to replace the old Alcázar (or fortress) of the Austrias...
• Isabella de Osorio
  and the young Philip II, possible models for Titian
  'One depicting the love affairs of Jupiter when, under a golden rain, he came to make love to Diana, and the other depicting the legend of Venus and Adonis'.
• Bandits of Guadarrama
  Crossing the mountain passes in the Guadarrama range was always a dangerous business; since the time of the surrender of Madrid to Alfonso VI, there were bands of Toledo Muslims who made their living by...
• The Bridge of Pardon
  and the Knights of the 'Quiñones' of Segovia
  The military leaders Fernán García and Día Sanz, who were responsible for the conquest of Madrid in 1085, formed the 'Association of the Knights of the 'Quiñones' (or lands) of the City of Segovia' in order to...
• Pepita Tudo, the model for Goya’s Majas
  In the collection of the Fundación Lazaro Galdeano there is a miniature of Doña Josefa Tudo y Catalá, Countess of Castillo Fiel, dowager Princess of la Paz y de Bassano, dowager Duchess of la Alcudia...
• Ruy Gonzalo de Clavijo
  The description of his journey is meticulously related in a treasure of medieval Castilian literature entitled 'Embassy to Tamburlaine', which is on a par with the famous 'Travels' of Marco Polo.
• 'Tío Francachela' fountain
  Antonio Robledo, a native of Mirasierra, goat-herder by profession and wolf hunter by vocation, was born on 13 January 1826, and dedicated his life to culling the wolves in the Lozoya valley and the mountains of Miraflores, Bustarviejo and Manzanares.
• The first skiers in the Guadarrama mountains
  In the early years of the 20th century some of the students at the Institución Libre de Enseñanza (a prestigious experimental educational institution of the time) who used to frequent the –at that time little-known– Sierra de Guadarrama mountains nearby...