Las Ventas: the neo-Mudéjar bullring and the quiet park
The brick-and-tile drum of Las Ventas, the Salamanca-east streets, and a hidden valley park. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas
Come for the building, not the bullfight. José Espeliú's 1929 *neo-Mudéjar* drum — horseshoe arches, glazed ceramic medallions of every Spanish region, brick laid in patterns that owe everything to the old Moorish workshops. Walk the full circumference; the tilework changes around the ring.

2. The ceramic medallions and ticket arches
Up close, the façade is a catalogue of Spanish ceramics — each provincial coat of arms set in glazed tile by the workshops of Talavera and Manises. The main *puerta grande* is the one matadors dream of being carried out through. Stand under it and read the tiles like a map of the country.

3. Calle de Alcalá toward Goya
Drop south-west down Alcalá into the eastern edge of *Salamanca*, the grid of grand 19th-century blocks Madrid built for its new middle class. The shops thin and the buildings settle into residential calm. A street to walk, not stop on — the destination is the green valley ahead.

4. Parque de la Fuente del Berro
A small, steep, English-Romantic park tucked into a fold of land — winding paths, a duck pond, peacocks that wander the lawns, and a statue of Pushkin given by Moscow. It feels like a secret because the motorway runs just below it. The best quiet in this corner of Madrid; bring a book.

5. The pond and the peacocks
The heart of the park: a tiered pond fed by the old spring (the *fuente* of the name), willows, and birds that have the run of the place. Sit on the upper terrace for the long view down through the trees. Most people who pass Las Ventas never find this; you can.

6. Calle de O'Donnell and El Carmen
Climb out of the valley's far side into the workaday streets around *O'Donnell*, where the grandeur gives way to ordinary neighbourhood Madrid — bakeries, bars, school runs. The honest end to a walk that started with a monument. El Carmen metro is here when you're done.

Las Ventas: the neo-Mudéjar bullring and the quiet park