Madrid

Madrid combines royal heritage with a warm, expansive urban spirit. Museums, plazas, gastronomy, elegant hotels and late-night social life create a capital of culture and confidence.

Madrid stands at the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, some 650 metres above sea level, chosen as capital by Philip II in the sixteenth century. Habsburg Madrid survives around the Plaza Mayor and the lanes of La Latina; the Bourbons added the Royal Palace, the Retiro and the grand avenues. Puerta del Sol remains the point from which all distances in Spain are measured.

Its great asset is art. Along the Paseo del Prado, the Prado, the Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Reina Sofía form a single walk through European painting from Velázquez and Goya to Picasso’s Guernica; together with the Retiro they are inscribed by UNESCO as a landscape of arts and sciences. The Salamanca district holds the fashion houses; Chueca, Malasaña and the Barrio de las Letras the bars and restaurants.

Spring and autumn are Madrid’s finest seasons, with warm days, long terraces and the city at full energy. May brings the festival of San Isidro, the patron saint, and the most important run of bullfights of the year at Las Ventas; October and November the start of the cultural season, when the theatres, the Teatro Real and the galleries are in full swing.

High summer on the plateau is hot and dry, and in August many Madrileños leave for the coast, which makes the city quieter and the museums easier. Winter is crisp and sunny, with cold nights, Christmas lights along the Gran Vía and the Three Kings parade on the evening of 5 January. Dinner, in any season, rarely begins before ten.

Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid, opened in 1910 and restored in 2021, and The Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel, opened in 1912, face each other beside the Prado. Four Seasons Hotel Madrid joins seven historic buildings at Canalejas, near Puerta del Sol; The Madrid EDITION stands on the Plaza de Celenque close by; and Rosewood Villa Magna lies on the Paseo de la Castellana in the Salamanca district.

LVXVRY books them through Mandarin Oriental Fan Club, Four Seasons Preferred Partner and Marriott STARS & Luminous — at the official hotel rate, with the privileges each programme attaches to the stay. For Rosewood Villa Magna, LVXVRY advises on and arranges the stay. Hotels near the Prado suit museum days; the Castellana the shopping of Salamanca.