Madrid

The story of Madrid

Madrid began as Mayrit, a 9th-century Moorish watchtower settlement whose Arabic name likely means "place of many waters," after the underground streams beneath it. It was a backwater until 1561, when Philip II, to general astonishment, moved his court to this dusty plateau town precisely because it belonged to no powerful faction.

What Madrid lacked in pedigree it made up in altitude and ambition: at roughly 650 metres it is continental Europe's highest capital, and the Habsburgs and Bourbons filled it with palaces, plazas, and the painting collection that became the Prado, Velázquez, Goya, and Bosch's fever dreams included.

Curiosities: Botín (1725) holds the Guinness record for the world's oldest restaurant, and Goya reputedly washed dishes there; the city's symbol, a bear reaching into a strawberry tree, stands in the Puerta del Sol; and Madrileños' late hours are real, dinner at ten is early.