Declared the capital of Habsburg Philip IPs empire in 1561, and the residence of the Bourbons from 1700 onward, Madrid lives with its royal family, its royal palaces and gardens, and its splendid churches. The Madrid of the Habsburgs is concentrated around the grandiose Plaza Mayor, which served both as the scene of bull fighting and as the site of a tribunal for trying heretics. The poets' quarter around the Plaza de Santa Ana still breathes the atmosphere of the Siglo de Oro, the Golden Age. The city has the 18th century to thank for its wide boulevards and generous plazas adorned with sculptures. The rise to city of great economic and business importance began at the turn of the 20th century: sumptuous banks and corporate buildings soon appeared along Calle Alcala and Gran Via, while cultural circles, cafes, and cinemas attested to the euphoric spirit of a new beginning that was soon to be cut short by civil war and dictatorship. Tradition and the avant-garde are not a...