Madrid

Madrid began as a fortress built to protect a city it would later replace. In the 9th century, the Moorish emir Muhammad I built a stronghold called Mayrit on a rocky hill above the Manzanares River.

Its job was to guard the northern approaches to Toledo, then the far more important city.

The name Madrid comes from that Arabic root, referring to the underground springs that fed the settlement. Christian forces took the fortress in 1085, but Madrid stayed a small town of a few thousand people for centuries.

Everything changed in 1561. King Philip II moved his royal court here from Toledo, mostly because Madrid sat near the exact geographic center of Spain.

The town had no port, no major river, and no real wealth. Within 40 years it exploded from a few thousand residents to roughly 100,000.

On May 2, 1808, the people of Madrid rose up against Napoleon's occupying army in the Puerta del Sol. French troops crushed the revolt and executed hundreds of rebels the next morning.

Goya painted both days. "The Second of May" and "The Third of May 1808" now hang in the Prado.

That museum anchors what locals call the Golden Triangle of Art. The Prado holds Velázquez and Goya, the Reina Sofía holds Picasso's "Guernica," and the Thyssen-Bornemisza fills the gaps across 700 years of European painting.

All three sit within a 10-minute walk of each other.

Tour the Royal Palace, the largest functioning royal palace in Western Europe, then wander the arcaded Plaza Mayor a few blocks away. Stand on the Kilometer Zero plaque in Puerta del Sol, the point from which every road in Spain is measured.

Rent a rowboat on the lake in Retiro Park.

Eat a bocadillo de calamares, a fried squid sandwich sold all over the center, or queue at Chocolatería San Ginés for churros and thick hot chocolate, open since 1894. Pull up a stool at the Mercado de San Miguel and graze on jamón, olives, and croquetas.