Surely if you have visited or plan to visit Madrid, you will want to know some curious details about this city, which is not only the capital of Spain, but also one of the most visited tourist destinations in Europe and around the world. Next, we are going to present you some curious things about Madrid that will surely interest you:
1- As many people know, the symbol of Madrid is “The Bear y The Tree Strawberry”; but not everyone knows its real meaning. Well, the thing about the bear is due to the fact that before it became a big city, it was an area where bears abounded, in addition to the lots of strawberry trees that there were in the areas where there are currently buildings. However, there is also another less shared version, which is that the bear is said to actually refer to the Ursa Major constellation.
2- Another interesting fact about Madrid is that there are remains of the Berlin Wall in a park called Berlin and, in addition, the bear is also a symbol of the capital of Germany.
3- In addition to remains of the Berlin Wall, the city has an Egyptian temple, called “Temple of Debod”, that it was a gift from the Egyptian government in gratitude for the help that Spain gave to that country in order to protect the temples of Nubia which would disappear if the Asuan dam was built. Undoubtedly, the interesting facts about Madrid are full of history and culture.
4- During the 1920s, Madrid had some of the tallest buildings in Europe, among which the Telefónica building stood out, from where the first call was made from Spain to America and in which King Alfonso XIII and Calvin Coolidge, the President of the United States for that time, talked.
5- One of the curious facts about Madrid is that one of the most iconic characters in Spain lived in the narrowest house in the city. It was the famous playwright and poet, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, and his house was identified with number 61.
6- The extremes are present in the capital of Spain. On the one hand, there is a street of only 20 meters (Rompelanzas Street) which is the smallest in the city, but it is also Alcalá Street which, with its 10 kilometres, is the longest in Madrid.
7- Without a doubt, it is that among the interesting facts about Madrid, the statue of Satan himself stands out. It is located in Retiro Park, and the most amazing thing about it is that it is located exactly 666 meters above sea level. Curious and devilish, don’t you think?
8- Another of the most amazing and macabre curious things about Madrid is that in Tirso de Molina metro station, it is said that at night you can hear the screams and wails of monks who are buried underneath the station, since there was a convent there in former times.
9- In Madrid it is Sobrino de Botín Restaurant, which is one of the oldest restaurants in the world, even some historians say that it is the oldest one. It was inaugurated in 1725 and is located near Plaza Mayor.
10 -One of the curious things about Madrid locates us at Puerta del Sol, just at kilometre 0 of Spain, from where the distances to any place in the country are measured.
11- Another curious detail of this emblematic city is that there it is located the Goddess of wisdom, military strategies and art. It’s about Minerva, which can be seen in a statue of 3,000 kilograms in weight and six meters high and is located in the Circle of Bellas Artes.
12- One of the funniest curious things about Madrid is that people who were born in this city are called “cats”. This is because in 1083 when King Alfonso VI was trying to conquer the Arab citadel of Mayrit, where the current capital of Spain was born, he was amazed by observing one of his soldiers when climbing a wall, and exclaimed, “He seems like a cat”. This great ability, apparently, helped a lot in the process of conquering the city.
13- If we talk about royal palaces, the Royal Palace of Madrid is the largest in Western Europe, surpassing even the famous Buckingham Palace, located in London, England.
14- One of the curious things about Madrid, somewhat disgusting, is that at the beginning of the 20th century and according to what is said, in Café Cervantes, the most famous in the city of Madrid at that time, cow’s milk was sold that a marquise used to bathe and she then sold very cheaply to the owner of this establishment in order to earn a few pesetas, and which he used to prepare coffees. It is said that after people found out about this, this café stopped being the most successful and popular in the Spanish capital.
15- One of the most incredible curious things takes us back to 1928, since back then it was forbidden to compliment in Madrid. This provision is said to have been included in its penal code, where penalties ranging from fines ranging from 40 to 500 pesetas to several days in prison were stipulated. Without a doubt this is one of the most unusual curious things about Madrid.
ALFA