The history of the city
Madrid was in its origins a defensive fort in a hillock in the west bank of the Manzanares river.
The Plaza de España is the simbol of development during the sixties in Madrid. Picture Guiarte.
It was Mohamed I, emir of Cordoba, son of Abderraman II, who fortified the place during the first half of the 9th-century, trying to create a strong branch that controlled access through this part along the north bank of the Tajo river.
In 932 it fell under christian domain, conquered by King Ramiro II from León. But the definite conquest occurred in 1083, with the troops of King Alfonso VI. Madrid was then a strong branch that occupied mainly the surroundings of the Almudena cathedral and the Royal Palace.
The end of the Middle Age was a period of progress settled during the years of the catholic kingdom of Elisabeth and Ferdinand. The regent cardinal Cisneros inhabited Madrid, and here Francisco I, King of France, was imprisoned. The Austrias finally settled the capital in Madrid. Felipe II appointed Madrid in 1561, despite the reticence of Carlos I, who preferred Toledo or Lisbon.
The Austrias and after the Bourbons continued to enlarge the city, but its mayor population growth ocurred during the second half of the 20th-century, due to immigration, that coincided with a profound change in the economic and human structure of Spain.
The last quarter of the 20th-century meant a consolidation of that new Madrid, with a substantial improvement of its cultural offer, coinciding with the implementation of democracy in the country.
The kings accumulated magnificent pictorial collections. Tabla de Boticelli, en El Prado.
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