Leaving Parque del Retiro at the northwest corner takes you to
the Plaza de la Independencia, in the centre of which is one of the
two remaining gates from the old city walls. Built in the late
eighteenth century, the Puerta de Alcalá was the biggest in
Europe at that time and, like the bear and bush, has become one of
the city's monumental emblems.
South from here, you pass the Museo de Artes Decorativas
(Tues-Fri 9.30am-3pm, Sat & Sun 10am-2pm; €2.40, free on Sun;
Métro: Banco de España/Retiro), which has its entrance on
c/Montalbán 12. The furniture and decorations here are not very
thrilling but there are some superb azulejos and other
decorative ceramics.
A couple of blocks west, in a corner of the Naval Ministry at
c/Montalbán 2, is a Museo Naval (Tues-Sun 10.30am-1.30pm,
closed mid-July to end of Aug; free; Métro: Banco de España),
strong, as you might expect, on models, charts and navigational
aids from or relating to the Spanish voyages of discovery. The army
has its museum, the Museo del Ejército , just to the south
of here at c/Méndez Núñez 1 (Tues-Sun 10am-2pm; €0.60, free on Sat;
Métro: Retiro). The museum is likely to be moved to the Alcázar at
Toledo in the future as the building features as part of the Prado
extension plans. It is a traditional display, packed with arms and
armour (including a sword of El Cid and conquistador
breastplates), and models and memorabilia of various battles, from
earliest times to the Civil War - in which Franco, here, remains
the good guy.
South again, past the Prado's Casón del Buen Retiro annexe
(part of the original Retiro palace), is San Jerónimo el
Real (Mon-Fri 8am-1.30pm & 6-8pm, Sat & Sun 9am-1.30pm
& 6.30-8pm, Oct-July opens one hour earlier in the afternoon),
Madrid's society church, where in 1975 Juan Carlos (like his
predecessors) was crowned. Opposite is the Real Academía
Española de la Lengua (Royal Language Academy), whose job it is
to make sure that the Spanish language is not corrupted by foreign
or otherwise unsuitable words; the results are entrusted to their
official dictionary - a work that bears virtually no relation to
the Spanish you'll hear spoken on the streets.