# Roots Earth in Madrid: audio stories about 56 places Canonical: https://rootsearth.com/cities/madrid Published: 16 September 2026 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. ## 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. - No account - Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection - Audio stories in English and German in every city, and in Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian in 126 of the 130 cities Roots Earth for Android is available on Google Play: [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rootsearth.app](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rootsearth.app). ## More from Roots Earth - [Europe in the Roots Earth catalogue](https://rootsearth.com/cities#europe): every city in Europe with its number of places and its languages. - [What Roots Earth is](https://rootsearth.com/app): the app in one page, how it works and what is in it. - [Questions travellers ask](https://rootsearth.com/faq): the cities, the languages, the account, listening without a connection. - [The 7 languages](https://rootsearth.com/languages): the seven languages with their codes and how many cities each one covers. - [Barcelona](https://rootsearth.com/cities/barcelona): 57 places in Spain with audio stories. - [Seville](https://rootsearth.com/cities/seville): 47 places in Spain with audio stories. - [Valencia](https://rootsearth.com/cities/valencia): 45 places in Spain with audio stories. - [Granada](https://rootsearth.com/cities/granada): 43 places in Spain with audio stories. 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