Salamanca , the area north of the Parque del Retiro, is a
smart address for apartments and, even more so, for shops. The
barrio is the haunt of pijos - universally denigrated
rich kids - and the grid of streets between c/Goya and c/José
Ortega y Gasset contains most of the city's designer emporiums. The
buildings are largely modern and undistinguished, though there is a
scattering of museums and galleries that might tempt you up here,
in particular the Lázaro Galdiano, the pick of Madrid's smaller
museums.
Taking the area from south to north, the first point of interest
is Plaza de Colón (Métro: Colón), endowed at street level
with a statue of Columbus (Cristóbal Colón) and some huge stone
blocks arranged as a megalithic monument to the discovery of the
Americas. Below it is the 1970s Centro Cultural Villa de
Madrid , which is still a good place for film and theatre and
occasional exhibitions (Tues-Sat 10am-9pm Sat & Sun 10am-2pm).
Across the square, if your taste runs to tableaux of
matadores being gored, or vain attempts to recognize Juan
Carlos, there is diversion at Paseo de Recoletos 41 in the Museo
de Cera (Mon-Fri 10.30am-2.30pm & 4.30-8.30pm, Sat &
Sun 10.30am-8.30pm; €9; Métro: Colón), a pretty lamentable wax
museum.
Off the square, too, with its entrance at c/Serrano 13, is the
Museo Arqueológico Nacional (Tues-Sat 9.30am-8.30pm, closes
6.30pm in July & Aug; Sun 9.30am-2.30pm; €3, free Sat
2.30-8.30pm & Sun; Métro: Serrano). As the national collection,
this has some impressive pieces, among them the celebrated
Celto-Iberian busts known as La Dama de Elche and La Dama
de Baza , and a wonderfully rich hoard of Visigothic treasures
found at Toledo. The exhibition, however, is very old-fashioned and
rooms are often closed for somnolent rearrangement, sometimes at
very short notice. In the gardens, downstairs to the left of the
main entrance, is a reconstruction of the Altamira Caves, with
their prehistoric wall paintings.
The Museo Lázaro Galdiano (Tues-Sun 10am-2pm, July &
Sept guided tours in the evenings 7-11pm, closed Aug; €3, free Sat;
www.flg.es ; Métro: Gregorio Marañon/Rubén Darío; closed for
the time being) is some way north at c/Serrano 122. This former
private collection was given to the state by José Galdiano in 1948
and spreads over the four floors and 37 rooms of his former home.
It is a vast jumble of art works, with some very dodgy
attributions, but includes some really exquisite and valuable
pieces. Among painters represented are El Greco, Bosch, Gerard
David, Dürer and Rembrandt, as well as a host of Spanish artists,
including Berruguete, Murillo, Zurbarán, Velázquez and Goya. Other
exhibits include a collection of clocks and watches, many of them
once owned by Carlos V.
Not far to the west of here, across the Paseo de la Castellana,
is another enjoyable gallery, the Museo Sorolla , c/General
Martínez Campos 37 (Tues-Sat 10am-3pm, July & Aug closes
2.30pm; Sun 10am-2pm; €2.40, free Sun; Métro: Gregorio
Marañon/Iglesia). This is a large collection of work by the painter
Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923), displayed in his old home and studio;
the best paintings are striking, impressionistic plays on light and
texture. The house itself, with its cool and shady Andalucian-style
courtyard and gardens, is worth the visit alone.
A little to the north just off the Paseo de la Castellana on
c/José Gutiérrez Abascal is the Museo de Ciencias Naturales
, or Natural History Museum (Tues-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat 10am-8pm, Sun
10am-2.30pm; €2.40; Métro: Nuevos Ministerios), one of the most
interactive of the traditional museums in the city centre, with
audiovisual displays on the evolution of life on earth and plenty
of dinosaur exhibits. Further north along the Paseo de la
Castellana, you reach the Zona Azca (Métro: Nuevos
Ministerios/Santiago Bernabéu), one of Madrid's newest business
quarters, with its tallest skyscraper - the 43-storey Torre Picasso
(designed by Minori Yamasaki) - and corporate headquarters. Just
beyond it, and easily the most famous sight up here, is the
magnificent Santiago Bernabéu football stadium, home of Real
Madrid.