The Plaza de Cibeles is a square with a neo-classical complex of marble sculptures with fountains that has become a symbol for the city of Madrid. It sits at the intersection of Calle de Alcalá , Paseo de Recoletos and Paseo del Prado. It is currently delimited by four prominent buildings: the Bank of Spain Building, the Palacio de Buenavista, the Palace of Linares, and the Cybele Palace. Over the years, Cybele Palace and her fountain have become symbolic monuments of the city.
Statue of Cybele by Francisco Gutiérrez Arribas
This fountain is named after Cybele, a Phrygian goddess. The fountain is traditionally the place where Real Madrid C.F. celebrate their team victories, with the team captain placing a Real Madrid flag and scarf on the statue.
Bank of Spain headquarters
Palace of Linares: It was declared national historic-artistic monument.
Hello Gentlemen, Cibeles Palace formally known as Palacio de Comunicaciones and Palacio de Telecomunicaciones until 2011, is a complex composed of two buildings with white facades and is located in one of the historical centres of Madrid. Formerly the city's main post office and telegraph and telephone headquarters, it is now occupied by Madrid City Council, serving as the city hall, and the public cultural centre CentroCentro.
The first stone of the building was laid in 1907. The building was officially opened on 14 March 1919 and began operating as a modern distribution centre for post, telegraphs and telephones. The whole complex, from a Spanish architecture stance, is one of the first examples of Modernismo and most representative, to be built in the centre of Madrid, with its Neoplateresque façade and Baroque Salamanca evocations.
The Naval Museum (Spanish: Museo Naval) is a naval museum in Madrid, Spain, devoted to the history of the Spanish Navy since the Catholic Monarchs, in the 15th century, up to the present. It is one of the National Museums of Spain and it is attached to the Ministry of Defence.
The displays set naval history in a wide context with information about the history of the Spanish Empire. The collections include navigation instruments, weapons, maps and paintings.
Reina Sofía National Museum of Art Center is a Spanish museum of 20th-century and contemporary art , based in the city of Madrid. Located in an old hospital building dating from the late 18th century by the architect Francesco Sabatini, the growth of its collection created a need for an extension, and 2005 saw the inauguration of a new building designed by Jean Nouvel.
The Reina Sofía National Art Centre opened its doors to the public in 1990 with a major collection of Spanish and international art covering the period between the late 19th century to the present day. Two years later Pablo Picasso's Guernica was installed, a key work that plays a defining role in the museum's discourse and activities.
Hello Gentlemen,
Casa Botín, founded in 1725 in Madrid, is the oldest restaurant in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records and a benchmark of Madrid’s best traditional cuisine.
Forbes magazine gave the House third place in the list of the world’s top 10 classic restaurants. Casa Botín has also served meals to numerous literary personalities. Ernest Hemingway, Benito Pérez Galdós, Graham Greene and María Dueñas, among many others, used the restaurant as a backdrop for their novels.
Hello Gentlemen,
Madrid Atocha railway station is the first major railway station in Madrid. It is the largest station in Spain.
At this site, Madrid's first railway station was inaugurated on 9 February 1851 under the name Estación de Mediodía (Atocha-Mediodía is now the name of an area of the Arganzuela district, and means south in old Spanish).
Segovia is a historic city northwest of Madrid, in central Spain's Castile and León region. Its centuries of settlement have resulted in a rich architectural legacy, including medieval walls, Romanesque churches, a former royal palace and a Gothic cathedral. Its iconic ancient Roman aqueduct has more than 160 arches, most in the original mortarless granite, and stands above Plaza Azoguejo in the heart of the city.
Segovia is such a special place that in 1985, the whole city centre was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Aqueduct of Segovia was built during the second half of the 1st century A.D. under the rule of the Roman Empire and supplied water from the Frío River to the city into the 20th century. The remaining portion of the structure stands 28.5 meters tall at its maximum height and nearly 6 additional meters deep in the main section. Along 14 kilometers of rolling landscape, the aqueduct adjusts to the contours of the valley, hills, and city and creates a sense of grandeur and monumentality. The pillars and arches of its tall, two-story arcades are made of solid blocks of stone fit closely together with little or no mortar, and the lower arches alternate in height according to the structure’s adaptation to the contours of the land.
Loba Capitolina at the foot of the aqueduct
This statue is replica of the Capitoline Wolf, the original which is housed in Capitoline Museum in Rome, and is a symbol of the City of Rome. The sculpture depicts a scene from the legend of the founding of Rome and shows a she-wolf suckling the mythical twin founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus.
The statue in Segovia was a gift from the City of Rome on the 2000th anniversary of the building of the aqueduct in 1974, although these dates are probably incorrect since it probably dates from around circa AD 50.
Hello Gentlemen,
Cathedral of St. Mary is a Roman Catholic cathedral located in the Spanish city of Segovia. The church is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and to Saint Fructus and is the seat of the Diocese of Segovia. It was built in the Flamboyant style, and was dedicated in 1768, constituting one of the latest Gothic cathedrals in Europe.
Cathedral of St. Mary boasts a beautiful, radiant Baroque design, with wonderful altarpieces and one of the highest towers in Spain. It is known as the Lady of the Cathedrals because of is height and the depth of its naves.
The Alcazar of Segovia is a medieval castle located in the city of Segovia. It has existed since at least the 12th century, and is one of the most renowned medieval castles globally and one of the most visited landmarks in Spain. It has been the backdrop for significant historical events and has been home to twenty-two kings, along with notable historical figures.
The fortress stands on a rocky crag at the western end of Segovia's Old City, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985, above the confluence of rivers Eresma and Clamores. Today, it is used as a museum and a military archives building since its declaration as a National Archive by a Royal Decree in 1998. It has also worked at times as a state prison, a Royal Artillery College, and a military academy.
