Puerta del Sol.

This is not the famous Puerta del Sol (Gate of the sun), but the impression is the same. Soon I will tell you more about the point cero of spanish highways.

Roofing I.

The Second Republic opened the way to the northern extension of the city by demolition of the racecourse. A 1964 competion defined the actual commercial centre called AZCA, with symbolic buildings by architects like Francisco Sainz de Oíza with his BBVA-Bank building (1981) or the Picasso Tower (1988) by New York´s World Trade Center architect Minoru Yamasaki. Behind those you can see the Kia-Towers around Castilla square. In the background the skyline of Madrid´s four megatowers you found lots of pictures in this blog.

Markets (VI)

We are back again. Hello fellows, here the photo of the Mayor Square you wanted we post. A lot of work and a journey to Barcelone to my wife´s sister delays a little our daily blog (that never was a daily but a two-times-a-week one).
This square, originally created by king´s Philip II. of Spain arquitect Juan de Herrera in the 1590th it was finished in 1619 closing its still open fronts. Once place for market and justice, today it is one of the most beautiful squares in Spain with lots of cultural events all the year.

Markets (V)

North of Toledo Street leads directly to Madrid´s most famous square you see in the background: Mayor square. Its the traditional old market place in spanish cities mostly bordered by artisticly worked fachades. The most famous ones you find in Madrid, Salamanca, Barcelona (there its called: Real square) and Chinchon, nearby Madrid.

Monuments II.

Another point of view of >The monument of the discovery of America<. I hope you like it, too.

Ring...ring. Ring...ring.

The globalplayer Telefónica (Spanish Telecom) has opened two years ago its spanish headquarters, designed by famous architect Rafael de La-Hoz Castanys. It occupies 200.000 squaremeters formed of various buildings creating a great rectangle where 18.000 employees are working.

Saint Isidro

Today lots of adults and children wear their traditional clothes at St. Isidros holiday. They go out to have lunch in the Pradera de San Isidro, a park beside of the Manzanares river. The way the man is dresses is called >chulapo<.

Stairway to heaven.

The Iglesia Parroquial Santa Bárbara (Parish Church of St. Barbara) was built between 1750 to 1758 by François Carlier and Francisco Moradillo. It formed part of the Convento de la Visitación de las Salesas Reales whose backside part nowadays houses the Supreme Court. After a great fire in 1915 it was rebuilt by Joaquín Rojí.

Monuments I.

This sculpure(s) from 1977 called >The monument of the discovery of America< by Joaquín Vaquero Turcios is one of two situated at Plaza Colón (Colombus Square). It consists of three concrete blocks and pedestrials with inscriptions by philosophers and indigenous leaders.
I will go out to discover London once again. tr3nta, where are you?

Iron and stone.

Detail of the building of the old "Banco Español de credito" (Spanish Credit Bank) - now Banesto. Its actual appearance it had since 1882, last rehabilitation. It is one example for eclectic style you find a lot near Sevilla street.

Lightstripes.

Calle Alcalá - spoken Alka-la - is one of Madrid's largest streets. It joins the citycenter with the most famous square Sol ("Sun"), and the suburbs of the town, 15km far apart from Sol. The towerbuilding in the centre of the image houses the Circulo of Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Academy). For an entrance fee of 1 Euro you can both enter in the fantastic turn of the century cafeteria and visit lots of extraordinary fine arts expositions.

Noise.

Gran Vía (literally "Great Way") is one of Madrid's most famous and most crowded streets. It leads from the Metropolis-Building to Plaza España, passing Callao where is the heart of it. Because of the elevate number of cinemas and musicals it is called sometimes the Broadway of Madrid.

>In the mid 19th century, Madrid's urban planners decided that a new thoroughfare had to be created, connecting the Calle de Alcalá with the Plaza España. The project required many buildings in the center of the city to be demolished, earning it the name of 'an axe blow on the map'. Decades after the first plans were made, construction still had not started and the media ridiculed the project, cynically calling it the 'Gran Vía'. Finally in 1904 it was approved and construction started a couple of years later. The last part of the street was completed in 1929.< (Wikipedia)

Silence.

Leaving main streets there are lots of them with silence and poetic urbanism. Like in this picture nearby the opera.

Markets (IV)

The dissapperance of houses lets pass the sunlight through the town.

Red clock.

The clock of the Telefonica (Spanish Telecom) Building and the building itself are two important landmarks of the city. Built between 1926 and 1929 by the architect Ignacio de Cárdenas Pastor it was the highest building in Europe at this moment with a height of 89,30m.

Cityscape.

Last floor. I go out of the elevator. There is no closed staircase in my house. All open. Madrid's air is passing through. I can see the Telefonica's Building with its clock, red lighted at night. I see the disorder of roofing that is a texture of tiles, tubes and stacks. There is chaos in front of the grand white open of the blue omnipotent sky.

Nineteenfourtynine.

The Government-Department of Health and Consumers Protection in Prado's promenade and in front of the eponymous museum was designed by the architect Francisco de Asis Cabrero in 1949. Yes, 1949. And it is always an icon of spanish modern architecture although built in time of Francisco Franco's dictature. Once elevated to house the trade-union, in the democracy it became building for the ministry. Its perfect cubic volume stands for the perfection architects are looking for since ever.

Markets (III)

Destruction.

Markets (II)

I shot this photo during the destruction of San Anton's market. It will be another one with three parking levels and an all-open supermarket of the marketing chain OpenCor of the Corte Inglés. In this never sleeping Chueca neighbourhood I suppose it achieves success. The owners had planned to integrate some of the old stands, too.

Sunny days.

Nearby the most famous square Sol ("sun") you find some extraordinary views, like this with the VITALICIO Insurance Building and the old Abbey of the Conception.

Chueca

If you leave mainstreets of Chueca neighbourhood you can find some extraordinary facades, sometimes like in this foto with a little garden in front of it. Chueca, the centrical little square and the underground-station, whose name is dedicated to the composer Federico Chueca, is the most gayfriendly neighbourhood in Madrid. Once a high-criminated zone, it developed in the late nineties to an vanguardian and modern neighbourhood. But: there are lots of senior citizen who always had been lived there. It is the tolerant way of living I like, this contrast to see a couple of two men and an aged woman buying bread in the same shop.

One of them.

One bright night I went out to take a shot.
Looking for the right light I caught a lot.

Tower Zoom...

I'm so glad that "H" (hache) finally got some time to post (I hope he keep on posting). His photos are great. ¿don't you think?... Making echo of SKY and SCAPER post by "H" the other day I bring you a Tower Zoom of the 3 tallest building in Madrid and in Spain. The Sacyr-Vallehermoso tower, designed by the architects Carlos Rubio Carvajal and Enrique Álvarez-Sala Walter, is 236 meters high and it has 52 floors...

Dedicated to two women

Don't mind I want to addict to sensational images. But these centrical square nearby Gran Via and underground-station Callao had been reformed after commiting two knifings. Two women, working in the street, were murdered in it in the last three years. I think it's a shame that have to happen things like that to change urban spaces, don´t you?

Markets (I.)

Neighbourhood Justicia's old markets are nearly disappeared; one of the last is the Barcelo-Market near the Tribunal underground-station. But the new proyect with another shopping-center, culturecenter and public swimming-pools has already the license-to-be-built.