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Roots Earth in Madrid: audio stories about 56 places

Roots Earth has audio stories about 56 places in Madrid, Spain, in Europe. The Madrid stories are in all seven Roots Earth languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The app needs no account: open Madrid, pick a place on the city's map of places and play. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. The stories are written by local people.

The 56 places are listed below in the order the app shows them, and again further down with their coordinates. The lists were taken from the Roots Earth catalogue on 15 September 2026.

Published 16 September 2026. Markdown: madrid.md

The 56 places in Madrid with audio stories

In the order the app shows them.

  1. Plaza Mayor
  2. Puerta del Sol
  3. Royal Palace of Madrid
  4. Almudena Cathedral
  5. Museo del Prado
  6. Museo Reina Sofía
  7. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
  8. El Retiro Park
  9. Palacio de Cristal
  10. Puerta de Alcalá
  11. Gran Vía
  12. Plaza de Cibeles
  13. Cibeles Palace (Palacio de Cibeles)
  14. Plaza de España
  15. Temple of Debod
  16. Mercado de San Miguel
  17. Santiago Bernabéu Stadium
  18. Las Ventas Bullring
  19. Royal Botanical Garden
  20. Monastery of Las Descalzas Reales
  21. Plaza de Oriente
  22. Teatro Real
  23. Basilica of San Francisco el Grande
  24. Plaza de la Villa
  25. CaixaForum Madrid
  26. Círculo de Bellas Artes
  27. Atocha Station
  28. Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando
  29. Royal Collegiate of San Isidro
  30. Torre de Madrid
  31. Metropolis Building
  32. Faro de Moncloa
  33. Matadero Madrid
  34. National Archaeological Museum
  35. Hermitage of San Antonio de la Florida
  36. Cuatro Torres Business Area
  37. Sorolla Museum
  38. La Latina
  39. El Rastro Flea Market
  40. Lavapiés
  41. Malasaña
  42. Chueca
  43. Barrio de las Letras (Literary Quarter)
  44. Mercado de San Antón
  45. Estación de Chamberí (Andén 0)
  46. Plaza de Olavide
  47. Royal Tapestry Factory
  48. San Isidro Cemetery
  49. Campo del Moro Gardens
  50. Casa de Campo
  51. El Capricho Park
  52. Salamanca District
  53. Usera (Madrid's Chinatown)
  54. La Corrala (Lavapiés)
  55. Plaza del Dos de Mayo
  56. Cine Doré (Filmoteca)

Is there an audio guide for Plaza Mayor?

Yes. Plaza Mayor has its audio stories in the Roots Earth app: a short introduction and a deeper story, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian.

It is place 1 of the 56 Madrid places in the app, at 40.41556, -3.70739. Every one of the other 55 places in the list above has the same two stories.

Roots Earth is not a guided tour: you choose the place on the city's map of places and play its story yourself.

How to use Roots Earth in Madrid

Open Roots Earth and choose Madrid. The city has its own map of places with all 56 of them on it. Tap the place you are standing in front of, or any other, and play its short introduction or its deeper story. You decide what to listen to and in which order.

You can listen in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian, and there is no account. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection.

In full

All 56 places in Madrid, in the app's order, with their coordinates.

All 56 places in Madrid, with coordinates

Every place below has a short introduction and a deeper story in the Roots Earth app, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The names, the coordinates (latitude, longitude) and the one line descriptions are the app's own catalogue values of 15 September 2026; a place without a line here has none that this page can print.

1. Plaza Mayor

Coordinates
40.41556, -3.70739
In one line
A grand rectangular square completed in the early seventeenth century under King Philip the Third, ringed by uniform red residential buildings with balconies. Once a stage for markets, bullfights, and Inquisition trials, it remains the ceremonial heart of old Madrid.

2. Puerta del Sol

Coordinates
40.41694, -3.70358
In one line
Madrid's busiest public square and symbolic center, marked by the Kilometre Zero plaque from which Spain's roads are measured. Home to the bear-and-strawberry-tree statue and the clock whose chimes ring in the new year with twelve grapes.

3. Royal Palace of Madrid

Coordinates
40.41805556, -3.71416667
In one line
The official residence of the Spanish Crown and the largest royal palace in Western Europe, built in the eighteenth century on the site of a fortress that burned in seventeen thirty-four. Used today for state ceremonies, its thousands of rooms blend Italian and Spanish grandeur.

4. Almudena Cathedral

Coordinates
40.415586, -3.714558
In one line
Madrid's Catholic cathedral, facing the Royal Palace across a broad square. Begun in the late nineteenth century and finished only in nineteen ninety-three, when Pope John Paul the Second consecrated it, it blends Neo-Gothic, Neoclassical, and modern styles under one roof.

5. Museo del Prado

Coordinates
40.4139, -3.6922
In one line
Spain's national art museum and one of the world's greatest galleries of European painting, opened in eighteen nineteen. Housed in a Neoclassical building by Juan de Villanueva, it holds masterpieces by Velázquez, Goya, El Greco, Bosch, and Titian drawn from the royal collections.

6. Museo Reina Sofía

Coordinates
40.4086, -3.694
In one line
Spain's national museum of twentieth-century and contemporary art, opened in 1990 in the former Hospital of Atocha. Its most famous holding is Picasso's vast anti-war canvas Guernica, displayed alongside major works by Dalí, Miró, and other modern masters.

7. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza

Coordinates
40.41604111, -3.694925
In one line
An art museum built around the private collection of the Thyssen-Bornemisza family, opened to the public in nineteen ninety-two. Spanning eight centuries from medieval panels to Pop Art, it fills the gaps between Madrid's other great galleries in a restored Neoclassical palace.

8. El Retiro Park

Coordinates
40.415, -3.68388889
In one line
Once the private pleasure garden of Spanish kings, El Retiro is now Madrid's beloved green heart, where a grand lake, rose garden, and shaded avenues spread across more than a hundred hectares of city centre.

9. Palacio de Cristal

Coordinates
40.41139, -3.6825
In one line
A shimmering pavilion of glass and iron raised in El Retiro Park in eighteen eighty-seven, the Crystal Palace was built to display exotic plants and now hosts contemporary art beside its own tranquil pool.

10. Puerta de Alcalá

Coordinates
40.42, -3.68888889
In one line
A grand neoclassical gateway raised for King Charles the Third in seventeen seventy-eight, the Puerta de Alcalá rises with five arches of pale granite, a triumphal symbol standing proudly at one of Madrid's busiest crossroads.

11. Gran Vía

Coordinates
40.42028, -3.70577
In one line
Carved through the old city from nineteen ten, Gran Vía is Madrid's grand boulevard of cinemas, shops, and soaring early-twentieth-century facades, a glittering avenue often called the Spanish Broadway that never seems to sleep.

12. Plaza de Cibeles

Coordinates
40.41916667, -3.69305556
In one line
A majestic square ringed by palaces, the Plaza de Cibeles centres on an eighteenth-century marble fountain of the goddess Cybele riding a lion-drawn chariot, one of the best-loved symbols of Madrid.

13. Cibeles Palace (Palacio de Cibeles)

Coordinates
40.41916, -3.69261
In one line
A dazzling white palace of spires and carved stone built between nineteen oh seven and nineteen nineteen as Madrid's grand post office, the Palacio de Cibeles now houses the city hall, a cultural centre, and a rooftop viewpoint.

14. Plaza de España

Coordinates
40.42355, -3.71215
In one line
At the western end of Gran Vía, the Plaza de España gathers around a monument to the writer Cervantes, with bronze statues of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza below mid-century skyscrapers and a newly greened, pedestrian-friendly square.

15. Temple of Debod

Coordinates
40.424, -3.71772
In one line
A genuine ancient Egyptian temple, more than two thousand years old, gifted by Egypt and rebuilt stone by stone on a Madrid hilltop. Once dedicated to Isis beside the Nile, it now mirrors itself in shallow pools and draws crowds for the city's loveliest sunsets.

16. Mercado de San Miguel

Coordinates
40.41528, -3.70889
In one line
A glittering pavilion of iron and glass from 1916, set steps from the Plaza Mayor.

17. Santiago Bernabéu Stadium

Coordinates
40.45306, -3.68835
In one line
Home of Real Madrid since 1947, this vast arena on the Paseo de la Castellana has hosted a World Cup final and countless European nights. A recent rebuild wrapped it in shimmering steel, with a roof that closes and a pitch that sinks underground.

18. Las Ventas Bullring

Coordinates
40.43208333, -3.66327778
In one line
Spain's grandest bullring, opened in 1931 and built in ornate Neo-Mudéjar brick and ceramic tile. Seating around twenty-four thousand, Las Ventas is the most prestigious arena in the bullfighting world, where matadors dream of being carried out through its great door.

19. Royal Botanical Garden

Coordinates
40.41139, -3.69083
In one line
A living museum of plants founded in 1755 and moved beside the Prado by King Charles the Third. Laid out on three formal terraces, it gathers thousands of species from across the world, a green monument to the Enlightenment's hunger to name and understand all of nature.

20. Monastery of Las Descalzas Reales

Coordinates
40.41806, -3.70639
In one line
A working convent hiding one of Madrid's richest art collections. Founded in 1559 by a daughter of Emperor Charles the Fifth, it drew royal nuns who brought treasures by Titian and Brueghel. Behind a plain facade wait a frescoed staircase and rooms heavy with gold.

21. Plaza de Oriente

Coordinates
40.41833889, -3.71258611
In one line
An elegant garden square between the Royal Palace and the opera house, ringed by statues of early Spanish kings. At its center, Philip the Fourth rides a rearing bronze horse, an engineering puzzle said to have drawn advice from Galileo himself.

22. Teatro Real

Coordinates
40.41833333, -3.71027778
In one line
Madrid's grand opera house, facing the Royal Palace across Plaza de Oriente. Begun in 1818 and reborn in 1997 after decades of closures, it now ranks among Europe's most technically advanced lyric theatres.

23. Basilica of San Francisco el Grande

Coordinates
40.41083, -3.71417
In one line
A vast neoclassical basilica in La Latina, built in the late eighteenth century on a site linked to Saint Francis of Assisi. Its great dome is among the largest in Christendom, and its interior holds an early painting by Goya.

24. Plaza de la Villa

Coordinates
40.41528, -3.71
In one line
One of the oldest squares in Madrid and for centuries the seat of its city government. It gathers three landmark buildings from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries around a statue of the admiral Álvaro de Bazán.

25. CaixaForum Madrid

Coordinates
40.41108, -3.69336
In one line
A contemporary art and culture center on the Paseo del Prado, created by architects Herzog and de Meuron inside a former power station. Opened in 2008, it appears to float above the ground beside a living vertical garden.

26. Círculo de Bellas Artes

Coordinates
40.41833, -3.69694
In one line
A private cultural institution founded in 1880 and housed in a grand building on Calle de Alcalá by architect Antonio Palacios.

27. Atocha Station

Coordinates
40.4065, -3.6893
In one line
Madrid's largest railway station, whose nineteenth-century iron and glass train shed now shelters a lush tropical garden. It anchors Spain's high-speed network and holds a memorial to the victims of the 2004 train bombings.

28. Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando

Coordinates
40.4178, -3.7007
In one line
A royal fine arts academy and museum on Calle de Alcalá, founded in the mid eighteenth century. Often called Madrid's second great picture gallery, it holds masterworks by Goya, Zurbarán, Murillo, and others, along with Goya's own engraving plates.

29. Royal Collegiate of San Isidro

Coordinates
40.41139, -3.70778
In one line
Twin Baroque towers rise over Calle de Toledo, guarding the relics of Madrid's farmer-saint Isidore. For more than a century this Jesuit church stood in as the city's cathedral while a grander one was still unbuilt.

30. Torre de Madrid

Coordinates
40.42444444, -3.71222222
In one line
Rising one hundred and forty-two meters over Plaza de España, the Torre de Madrid was once the tallest building in Spain and the tallest concrete tower on Earth. Apartments and offices fill its thirty-seven floors today.

31. Metropolis Building

Coordinates
40.41889, -3.69833
In one line
Where Gran Vía meets Calle de Alcalá, a dark slate dome edged in gold lifts a winged figure into the sky. The Metropolis Building has crowned this corner since nineteen eleven, one of Madrid's most photographed sights.

32. Faro de Moncloa

Coordinates
40.4374, -3.7217
In one line
A slim transmission tower rising one hundred and ten meters over Moncloa, the Faro de Moncloa lifts you to an observation deck at ninety-two meters for a sweeping view across Madrid.

33. Matadero Madrid

Coordinates
40.39167, -3.69722
In one line
Madrid's old slaughterhouse, a vast neo-Mudéjar complex of brick by the Manzanares, now pulses with film, theater, and design. Forty-eight buildings that once handled livestock house one of the city's liveliest arts centers.

34. National Archaeological Museum

Coordinates
40.423645, -3.689422
In one line
Home to the enigmatic Lady of Elche and the golden Visigothic crowns of Guarrazar, the National Archaeological Museum gathers Spain's deep past on Calle de Serrano, from prehistory to the nineteenth century.

35. Hermitage of San Antonio de la Florida

Coordinates
40.42806, -3.72472
In one line
Goya painted angels as elegant women and saints as Madrid commoners across this small Neoclassical chapel's dome. Beneath those frescoes, near the Manzanares, the painter himself lies buried, though his skull is mysteriously missing.

36. Cuatro Torres Business Area

Coordinates
40.47777778, -3.68777778
In one line
A cluster of four glass skyscrapers rising at the northern end of the Paseo de la Castellana, completed between 2007 and 2008. Reaching almost 250 metres, they are the tallest buildings in Spain and crown the modern Madrid skyline.

37. Sorolla Museum

Coordinates
40.43528, -3.69333
In one line
The former home and studio of painter Joaquín Sorolla, preserved as a museum since 1932. Set behind Andalusian-style gardens in Chamberí, it holds the largest collection of the artist celebrated for his radiant Mediterranean light.

38. La Latina

Coordinates
40.41139, -3.70944
In one line
One of Madrid's oldest quarters, a maze of medieval streets in the historic centre. Named after the scholar Beatriz Galindo, it is famous for the tapas taverns of Cava Baja and the Sunday ritual of vermut after the flea market.

39. El Rastro Flea Market

Coordinates
40.40888889, -3.7075
In one line
Madrid's great open-air flea market, held every Sunday and public holiday along Ribera de Curtidores in La Latina. Centuries old and named for the old tanneries, it sells antiques, clothes and bric-a-brac, ending in the customary vermut.

40. Lavapiés

Coordinates
40.4085, -3.701
In one line
A historic working-class quarter in central Madrid, once deeply castizo and now one of the city's most multicultural neighbourhoods. Known for its corrala tenements, immigrant communities, alternative arts scene and the Tabacalera cultural centre.

41. Malasaña

Coordinates
40.42583, -3.70333
In one line
A central Madrid neighbourhood named after Manuela Malasaña, a heroine of the 1808 uprising against Napoleon. Once the epicentre of the post-Franco Movida counterculture, it remains the city's bohemian heart of bars, music and vintage shops.

42. Chueca

Coordinates
40.42194, -3.69694
In one line
A central Madrid neighbourhood and the heart of Spain's LGBT community since the 1990s. Once run-down, it was revitalised into a fashionable district of bars, boutiques and the San Antón market, and is the focus of the city's huge Pride celebrations.

43. Barrio de las Letras (Literary Quarter)

Coordinates
40.41472, -3.69833
In one line
The neighborhood where Cervantes, Lope de Vega and Quevedo lived, quarreled and wrote during Spain's Golden Age. Its narrow streets carry literary verses set in bronze into the paving stones underfoot.

44. Mercado de San Antón

Coordinates
40.42167, -3.69694
In one line
Chueca's neighborhood food market, rebuilt and reopened around 2011 as a three-floor space for eating. Buy fish downstairs, graze tapas in the middle, then climb to the rooftop terrace above the rooftops.

45. Estación de Chamberí (Andén 0)

Coordinates
40.4323, -3.69772
In one line
A metro station frozen in time. Opened in 1919, closed in 1966 because its curved platform was too short for longer trains, it sat as a ghost for decades. Now restored as a museum, with live trains rushing past the old tiled walls.

46. Plaza de Olavide

Coordinates
40.4325, -3.70222
In one line
Chamberí's beloved octagonal square. A covered market once filled its center, demolished by dynamite in 1974. Today it is all terraces, a playground, and neighbors of every age, the truest everyday heart of the barrio.

47. Royal Tapestry Factory

Coordinates
40.406069, -3.682483
In one line
A royal workshop founded in 1721 and still weaving by hand. Goya painted designs for its tapestries here. Artisans work centuries-old looms, knotting carpets and threading scenes one patient thread at a time.

48. San Isidro Cemetery

Coordinates
40.40694, -3.72528
In one line
One of Madrid's oldest cemeteries, opened in the early nineteenth century on the heights above the Manzanares. Grand pantheons and funerary sculpture mark the city's old elite, with the Royal Palace on the skyline across the river.

49. Campo del Moro Gardens

Coordinates
40.41889, -3.71583
In one line
The Royal Palace's sloping back gardens, laid out in English Romantic style in the nineteenth century. Shaded paths wind past two grand fountains and roaming peacocks, with the palace rising white at the top of the lawn.

50. Casa de Campo

Coordinates
40.42291, -3.75595
In one line
Once a king's private hunting ground, now the city's vast green lung. Madrileños come here to row the lake, sweat up the trails, and let Madrid breathe.

51. El Capricho Park

Coordinates
40.45333, -3.60139
In one line
A duchess built her dream garden here, all hidden temples, a maze, and a lake where boats once drifted. Open only weekends, it stays Madrid's most romantic secret.

52. Salamanca District

Coordinates
40.42806, -3.6825
In one line
Wide grid streets, grand bourgeois facades, and the Golden Mile of luxury boutiques. A marquis built this elegant quarter from scratch, and Madrid has dressed up here ever since.

53. Usera (Madrid's Chinatown)

Coordinates
40.38138889, -3.70694444
In one line
South of the river, a working-class barrio became Madrid's Chinatown. Steamed buns, hand-pulled noodles, red lanterns at Lunar New Year. This is the city's most delicious crossroads.

54. La Corrala (Lavapiés)

Coordinates
40.40916, -3.70158
In one line
Tiers of open balconies wrap a shared courtyard where neighbors once lived their whole lives in the open. This is old working-class Madrid, the soul of Lavapiés, made of brick and gossip.

55. Plaza del Dos de Mayo

Coordinates
40.42583, -3.7025
In one line
Where ordinary Madrileños rose against Napoleon in 1808, a single brick arch still stands. Today the heart of Malasaña gathers here, drinks on the terraces beneath two stone heroes.

56. Cine Doré (Filmoteca)

Coordinates
40.41165765, -3.69902598
In one line
Behind a glorious Art Nouveau facade, Madrid's oldest working cinema still flickers to life.

Roots Earth in short

Roots Earth has audio stories about 5,665 places in 130 cities, 25 countries and 6 regions, written by local people.

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  • Audio stories in English and German in every city, and in Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian in 126 of the 130 cities

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