- Hey, Spain lovers, James Blick here. Now anyone who knows me
well knows that after food, my second love is history. And when I moved to Madrid nine years ago from New Zealand, a
relatively young country, I fell in love with the
history of Madrid and of Spain. I began to devour it! So today I'm gonna take
you on my highlights of Historic Madrid Walking Tour. I'm gonna show you my favorite key sites, tell you the stories behind them. I'm gonna take you to
some secret stops as well, that I love and not
many people know about, and I'm gonna try and make it interesting, 'cause I know history can be boring, but I'm gonna do my best.
(speaking in foreign language) Venga, let's go!
(mysterious music) Madrid is such a
fascinating city to explore. Sprawling plazas, historic restaurants, grand palaces, hidden corners, dark stories of missing bodies, and shocking tales of
the Spanish Inquisition. The history of the Spanish
capital has it all. Today, we're gonna cover
over 1,100 years of history, so grab a cup of coffee or a glass of vermouth, and settle in. And what better place to start than exactly where it all began, right here in front of
Madrid's Royal Palace, because this is exactly where
my adopted city was founded. And first things first,
this palace is the largest still-functioning royal
palace in the world! Now the king and queen don't live here, but it's still used for
official ceremonies. Now see if you can guess how many rooms they have in this palace. Look, nobody knows for sure. It's between 2,800, I've read 3,400, nobody's quit sure, but it's enormous. And here's an important date. Nobody has lived in
this palace since 1931. Hold onto that date;
it'll come up again later. So I said Madrid was founded
here, but when and by who? You might have heard of the Moors. That was a mixture of
Berbers and Arab elite who were living in northern Morocco and invaded Spain in the eighth century. And they built here, in the ninth century, a fortress, a defensive castle. Now the Christians were
battling to retake Spain, what's called the Reconquest of Spain, but they built this here because they could see the mountains to the north, and that way they could see the Christians driving over the mountains,
the Guadarrama Mountains. But look, the Christians did come, and in the 11th century,
they captured the fortress, they captured what was
the military outpost, and then installed
themselves in the fortress, and Madrid began to grow as
more of a village, of a town. But you're probably
thinking, (chuckles) James, this doesn't look anything
like a ninth-century Moorish fortress, so what happened? Well, what happened is in 1734, the fortress, it caught fire. Supposedly, a candle
in the artists' studio fell over and it burned for four days. Well, we lost the building, but it was full of wonderful artworks, because the kings and queens of Spain had been great collectors of the arts, and they were throwing the artworks out the windows to save it. And the basis of what
today is the collection in the Prado is effectively
the art that was saved from the burning palace
or burning fortress. And then they built this
guy in the 18th century, which is kind of a little bit
French, a little bit Italian. To he honest, not my
favorite palace in the world, but if you visit it, the
armory is very, very cool. Okay, and before we head off, let me tell you about
this guy up on the horse. This is Philip IV.
(horse whinnying) He was a king who lived in the old palace, the one that burned down. And see, he wanted a sculpture
of himself on a horse with the horse rearing
up on its hind legs. So he got his sculptor, an
Italian guy called Tacca, to do it, but Tacca couldn't
figure out how to do it! 'Cause nobody had been doing sculptures in Europe with men on horses, where the horse was effectively
balanced on its hind legs. What looks simple today was
really hard at the time, so I love this story. Tacca wrote to a friend
of his, a fellow Italian, and you'll have heard of
this guy, Galileo Galilee. And Galileo gave him the exact equation of the angle of the horse
and told him how to construct the sculpture so that the
horse would be balanced. Here's what he said,
you've gotta balance it on three points at the back, which means the two legs and the tail. And he also said, the
front had to be hollow and the back had to be solid. And Galileo said that
if you do it like that, it will stand forever,
and so far, so good. Almost 400, 300 and a bit years later, no! 400, 300 and a bit years later. Still going!
(Yoly laughs) (dramatic music) So here in the Plaza de
Ramales is one of the hidden little secrets of Madrid that
not many people know about. So this might look like
a quiet little square with a few tapas bars and terraces, but right now, we're
standing in the middle of what was once a church that was here. You can see these outlines here. They look like little
benches for people to sit on, but it's actually the outline
of a church that was here for hundreds of years until
it was knocked down in 1810. Okay, so we knocked down the church, we lost an old building,
but what else did we lose? But you'll see that someone
really famous was buried here. You see, in 1660, Spain's
most famous court painter, most famous painter, Diego de
Velazquez, was buried here. Now he's the guy whose
works you're gonna see in the Prado, like "Las Meninas," the most famous artwork
in the Prado, is his, and he was buried beneath
this church, in the crypt! Now, in 1810 when they
knocked the church down, they forgot to take him
out before they did that, and so we lost any record
of where his body was. Now over the centuries, we've searched for Diego de Velazquez, including in 1999, was the last time they
looked for him here. They were digging for months
and they couldn't find him. So we don't know where he is. And I'll tell you what,
that's not the only famous missing Spanish body I'm
gonna tell you about today. I often say to people, "Don't
die while you're in Madrid, "'cause we might lose you." And I love this little grassy
knoll or nook that's up above the palace, beside Calle del Factor. Not many people come up here, and it's a great place to
get photos and to get views of the Royal Palace, of the cathedral, and then in behind is the Casa del Campo. Now that's a huge public park
now, but back in the day, it was the king's old hunting grounds. The fascinating thing about
the cathedral behind me is it took 110 years to build. Now that would be normal
when you're thinking 15th, 16th century, but it was
finished only in 1993! Civil wars, bankruptcy,
poverty, all got in the way, and that's why it took so long to build. And now, yeah, if you're
wandering around, head up here. Not many people know about this spot. (romantic music) And if you're wandering
around the Calle Mayor, you might turn a corner and see this guy. In fact, he's often given me a fright when I've been walking
around here at night. You think he's real. He's not, but he looks very real. And he's called "The Curious Neighbor." Now what's he so curious
about, what's he looking at? Well, there's not much to see, but beneath here are the
remains of an old church that was knocked down
when the Calle Mayor, the main street, was built. And here's the thing,
that church was built on the remains of a mosque. 'Cause remember, the Moors founded Madrid, and this was where their main mosque was. And something you need to know, if you touch his bum, it's good luck. And if you're a little bit prudish, you can touch his shoulder. Not quite as good luck. (upbeat music) So I love walking around this old part of Madrid, around the palace. It's called Barrio de los
Austrias, or Hapsburg, Madrid. And this is the part that was
really built up and important when the Hapsburgs were in power. I'm talking about the guy on the horse, Philip IV, his son, Charles II. Now here's the thing, you're gonna see paintings of these guys in the Prado. And when you look at them,
you're gonna think they look kinda funny, (chuckles)
funny-lookin' people. That's 'cause they were so inbred! The dynasty effectively
died out in the year 1700 because the last in the line, Charles II, couldn't have any children
because he was so inbred! There's so many stories
about how he was kind of, I mean, poor guy, kinda funny-looking, couldn't walk properly,
couldn't talk properly. His eight great-grandparents were descended from the same woman, and her name was Joanna the Insane. So that gives you an idea
of the kind of bloodline. And so tucked into the
Hapsburg neighborhood is this San Nicolas church,
or St. Nicholas Church. It's from the 12th century, the 1100s, and it's the oldest church in
Madrid that's still standing. And what I find fascinating about this is, look at that bell tower. Does it remind you of something? It kind of makes you think of Andalucia, of the Moors, of the Moorish architecture. Now there may have been
a mosque here as well, and the minaret was there, but also, in the 12th century, the
Christians were copying a lot of that Moorish
style of architecture, 'cause it was in fashion,
and so it's called Mudejar style, so very, very cool. A great little spot to discover. And now we're walking
into one of my favorite little squares, la Plaza de la Villa, which literally means town square or village square,
(chuckles) a little bit. And what's so interesting
about this square is that almost 500 years ago when Madrid was the capital of a global empire, this was one of the
most important squares, if not the most important, in the city! So what I find fascinating
about the square are the three buildings that surround it, each from a different century,
so let me geek out for a sec. This guy up here was the
Madrid town hall from 1693 right up until 2007, and
then it got a little small. That's over 300 years. You'll notice the sloping roof. So this is Hapsburg architecture, and the Hapsburgs were from Austria. In Austria, it snows a
lot, so that sloping roof is so the snow can fall off. Doesn't snow much in Madrid, so if that's a 17th-century building, if you swing it around a little bit, Yoly, down the back we have a
building from the 16th century, and then over on the
far side of the square, you've got a building
from the 15th century, one of the oldest still-standing
buildings in Madrid. You can see, the style is
much simpler from the old town hall in the 17th century. And what I find interesting
about this really simple building is if you look up at the top, you've got these arches,
these horseshoe-shaped arches, which, again, look like
that Moorish style. It wasn't built by the Moors,
but it was the Christians copying that style, the Mudejar style, so it was just fashionable at the time. All right, before we head into the most narrow street in Madrid, I wanna tell you about this guy up here. So this guy up here on the
statue is Alvaro de Bazan. Now he was the guy who
was in charge, initially, of the famous Spanish Armada's invasion, or attempted invasion, of
England in the 16th century. This guy was a great strategist, but he died a few months
before the invasion, and the guy that the king
appointed to take over was not such a good
strategist, and in fact, suffered from seasickness. So the invasion of England
was a complete disaster, but there's historians who say that if this guy had've
lived, maybe us Kiwis, English people, Australians, anybody a descendant from England, would today be speaking Spanish. (ethereal music) I love this extremely narrow street. You can almost touch the sides. So suddenly, all the noise disappears, the noise of the Calle Mayor, and you're lost here in
these old winding streets, and that's what I love about
walking around Old Madrid, that you'll turn a corner,
it will become silent, and so mysterious and wonderful. Such a great place to explore! So just at the top of Calle Cava Baja, that famous tapas street
that I made a video about, you'll see on the wall this little slogan, which
if you don't speak Spanish, you won't know what it means. (speaking in foreign language) What it means is, over water,
my walls of fire were built. And this is a very old motto
of Madrid going back centuries! And it refers to the fact
that Madrid, long ago, and maybe still today, I'm not quite sure, had underground aquifers
running beneath it. In fact, the name Madrid possibly comes from an Arabic word meaning
place of life-giving water, because remember, the founders
of Madrid spoke Arabic. So that's why it's over water, but what are these walls
of fire that it refers to? Well, that's because the
old medieval walls of Madrid ran through here, and
they were made with flint. And when an arrow hits flint, it sparks, so that's walls of fire. So over water, my walls
of fire were built. That's Madrid for you. And guys, we're just
about to walk past Botin, the oldest still-running
restaurant in the world. I'll link to a video above
that I made about the oldest restaurants in Madrid
that you can check out. (upbeat music) So we're now entering the square that you have to visit
while you're here in Madrid. Everyone visits it, Plaza Mayor. Now, but let me give you some context on what this grand square is all about, 'cause it's more than just a big square. It really speaks to the history of Madrid. So remember in the 11th
century, when the Christians captured what was then
a military fortress, it kind of began to grow into a town, but it was always really small. But in 1561, Philip II, the king of Spain, decided something huge. He decided to make Madrid his capital, and a capital needs a big square. So Philip II decided to
design this, the Plaza Mayor, for his new capital of the Spanish empire, and there's a lot that's gone on here. And so all these benches
that are in the square have images of all the things that have happened here over the years. So this one shows the
bullfights that used to happen here before Madrid had its bullring. Over here, you can see
a fire that happened. There's been three different fires in this square over the centuries. It's only one building that's original, and the other buildings have
been built after the fact, because of these fires. And tucked in here, behind
this woman feeding her baby, is you can see images of the Inquisition. There were Inquisition trials here, autos-da-fe, where effectively, the people who had been convicted
by the Spanish Inquisition were brought here and they
had to repent for their sins. Now here is the thing, if
you repented for your sins, you were given mercy, which
means you were strangled and then burned outside the city walls. If you didn't repent,
you just went straight outside the city walls
and you were burned alive. So yeah, kind of a dark
history that's happened here on the Plaza Mayor, but
also lots of good things. Now it's the Christmas market,
as we lead up to Christmas, so a little bit of yin and yang, a little bit of dark and light. That's Madrid, that's Spain, right? That's Spanish history,
that's what I love about it. Now I mentioned there've been three fires over the centuries here in the square, and the only building that
remains from the 17th century is this one, the Casa de la Panaderia. Originally, this is where
all the bread was baked in the city to keep
prices for bread stable. Nowaday, it's the tourist
information center. But what you should do
is if you come to Madrid, you need to check out these murals. They look like they're
hundreds of years old, and they're not; they're
only two or three decades, and they have wonderful
mythological symbols in them. And see if you can find the cats running up the tower when you come, because that's a reference to Madrid. Because if you're a
third-generation Madrileno or Madrilena, you're called a cat. So yeah, lots hidden in these murals. Okay, we're gonna leave the Plaza Mayor, and we're gonna go to
another famous square which has a very different history. (lively music) This square, the Puerta del Sol, is the square of the people. It's long been a place of gathering, where people came to meet each
other, a place of protest. It was once lined with lots of cafes, and this building up behind me was once the post office, the source of all news. In fact, there's a saying that the news of an event reaches the Puerta del Sol before the event has even happened. And people used to come here to get gossip of what was happening in the city. Of all those famous old cafes, one still remains, La Mallorquina. I made a video which mentions it, and they have a delicious napolitana. You have to try it while you're here. And as I say, it's long
been a place of protest here on the Puerta del Sol, all the way from the
beginning of the 19th century, where the Madrilenos rose up against the French occupying troops. You'll see paintings about
that from famous Goya in the Prado, even to Occupy Madrid. You might think that the Occupy Movement started in Wall Street, but
no, it started right here in the Puerta del Sol in 2011. So the people behind
me taking their photos standing on a plaque on the square, and actually queuing to
have their photo taken, they're queuing up for
the Kilometre Zero plaque, because this is where all the
radial roads throughout Spain, the main highways, are measured from, because this was the post
office back in the day. Nowadays they say if you
stand on that plaque, you will return, so when you're here, make sure you stand on it. Hopefully there's not gonna
be a queue when you're here, though, so I'm not gonna do it this time. And this clock up on
the building behind us, this is the clock that
everyone in Spain is watching at midnight on New Year's Eve. The square fills up, and
people are here with 12 grapes. And as the clock chimes 12 chimes just before we hit midnight, you each a grape with each chime. And literally, I've
been here in the square, it's packed, I've been sitting
at Yoly's parents' place watching the TV, watching this, and all over Spain everyone's
watching this clock, and it's kind of like
Times Square, I guess. So yeah, the Puerta del Sol, the people's square, where it all happens! And this guy up here with
the big nose, he's a Bourbon. He's from the same dynasty
as the current king of Spain. Now this guy was a king
in the 18th century, and when he arrived into
Madrid, he was like, "This place is kinda dirty,
it needs some tidying up!" So he paved the streets, he put in street lighting
and hired street sweepers, but a lot of Madrilenos fought back. They didn't want it to happen. They didn't want him
to tidy up their city. So he said, "Can I just do a few streets "and see what you think?" He did a few streets and they loved it. After that, he said, "The Madrilenos, "the people from Madrid,
are like little children. "They cry when you wash
their face." (laughs) (inspiring music) So if you need a little pit
stop during your historic route, check out this place, La Casa del Abuelo. They're famous for their prawns. I actually made a video about them, which I'll link to above, but also, they have an interesting history. This place is over a hundred years old, and way back in the '20s and '30s, they were known for their
sandwiches; it was also a shop. But then when the Spanish
Civil War came in 1936, there was a bread shortage in Madrid, and so the owner of this place, (speaking in foreign
language) the grandfather, went down to the market and bought the cheapest thing he could find, prawns. And he started mixing them
up with garlic and parsley, and made this delicious
gambas al ajillo dish, which they still do today. And so I love how the
gastronomy of this place, the dish they serve, comes
right out of a bread shortage in the Spanish Civil War. And speaking of the Spanish Civil War, there's someone I want you to meet. (gentle music) So this is my favorite
statue in all of Madrid, here on the Plaza Santa Ana. It's Federico Garcia Lorca, a very famous Spanish playwright and poet, and I just love the way
he's holding that bird. And mystery surrounds the end of his life. He was murdered in 1936 at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, and his body was buried
somewhere near Granada. They've searched for him multiple times and still haven't found it. He was killed either because he was gay or because of his left-leaning views. This was a very dramatic time
in the country's history. So remember when I told you way back at the beginning at the Royal Palace that that palace was
last inhabited in 1931? Well, that's because in 1931,
Spain became a republic, and it was quite a liberal republic. Church and state were separated. In 1933, women were given the vote. But '31 to '36 was a very tumultuous time in Spanish history. The left and the right
were pulling on each other. There was a lot of chaos. And in 1936, Franco,
a general in the army, staged a coup to take over the republic, and sort of pull Spain back
into its more traditional past. And that coup failed and
became the Spanish Civil War in 1936 to 1939. And so in 1936, at the
outbreak of that civil war, he was murdered and his
body was buried somewhere. Again, a missing body. Like Velazquez, we have
no idea where it is. And he's here because here
in the Plaza Santa Ana is the entry point to
the Barrio de las Letras, or Huertas, the Literary Quarter, the area where so many famous
writers have lived and died. And I'm gonna introduce you to another one in a moment who's also missing. Before we head off, I wanna tell you about this building behind me. So presiding over the Plaza
Santa Ana is this grand hotel. Now this hotel was where
the bullfighters famously used to come and get
dressed before bullfights. Manolete, the most famous
bullfighter of the 20th century, used to come here and get his suit on before going to the bullring. And also, he would sleep
here, always in the same room. And this square is a
much more peaceful square compared to the Plaza Mayor
or the Puerta del Sol, so if you wanna come and just hang out, there's a children's
playground, have a drink, it's really nice to sit in the sun. All right, let's dive into
the Barrio de las Letras. (melancholy music) So the most famous Spanish
author who lived here in Huertas, or in the Literary Quarter, was Miguel de Cervantes. He lived here in the 16th and 17th century and he wrote, well, see if you can guess, "Don Quixote," the man from La Mancha, the man who was tilting at windmills, fighting giants with his
sidekick, Sancho Panza. And he lived here in
three different houses, always renting, always a poor artist, never owned his own
house, which is typical of any kind of artist, I guess. And then we're gonna go down and see where he might be buried. It's all a bit unclear and a bit vague. Remember, we lose bodies here in Madrid. So Cervantes was buried
in this Trinitarian convent in 1616, the year he died. And interesting, it's the same
year that Shakespeare died. He was buried here, or he
wanted to be buried here, because the Trinitarian Order actually paid his ransom to get him out of prison when he was a POW in
Algiers for five years. So a really interesting
background, Cervantes. He was a soldier as well,
before he was a famous writer. And so he was buried here,
and then over the years, they kind of reformed
the convent a little bit, did some renovation works,
and they lost his body. Now suddenly, in 2011, a historian said that he
was gonna look for him. He wanted to do a study
to see if they could trace his body and then go inside and dig. And then in 2015, they
turned up a piece of wood from a coffin that had nails spelling M.C. into it,
and so everyone thought, we've found Miguel de
Cervantes' body, he's in here! Well, there was a little bit of doubt. Another historian said maybe it said M.G., and that maybe it wasn't as old as Cervantes was when he was buried here. And so in the end, they did declare that they had found pieces
of Cervantes' remains, but there was a little bit of skepticism from other historians. So it all kinda just
dissipated a little bit, and I'm not quite sure if
we've found him or not, but anyway, you can never
get into this place, anyway, to see where he might
be, so it's kinda part of the beauty of the mystery of Madrid. Did we find Cervantes, did we not? Does it really matter? So guys, if you keep walking down the hill at the bottom of the Literary Quarter, you'll hit the Prado Museum. Now that is a place you have to visit when you're here in Madrid, and my favorite artist
in the Prado is Goya, Francisco de Goya, for me
the greatest Spanish painter. Now we do know where Goya's body is. It's down by Madrid's river,
but he died in Bordeaux in the 1820s, and in
the later 19th century when they decided to dig
him up and bring him home, guess what, his head was missing. Where's his head? Who knows. (ethereal music) And before you hit the Prado,
you're probably hungry by now, after all this historic walking. You need to grab a bite, so guys, check out all the videos on this channel. There's plenty of videos
on where to eat in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, videos
from all over Spain, and I hope we'll see
you in the next video. (speaking in foreign language)
