Matadero Madrid and Legazpi: the slaughterhouse and the river edge
A vast brick slaughterhouse turned arts city, the Plaza de Legazpi, and the river edge. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Plaza de Legazpi
Start in the working square where the markets and the metro meet — no monument, just the everyday Madrid the arts complex grew out of. Get your bearings, then head for the brick gates to the west. The change of register, from traffic to courtyard, is part of the walk.

2. Nave 16 and the central courtyards
The heart of Matadero: a chain of brick pavilions around open yards, each once a hall of the slaughterhouse, now exhibition space. You don't need a ticket to walk the courtyards. Read the cast-iron and tilework as you go; the industrial bones are left deliberately bare.

3. Cineteca and the Plaza Matadero
The city's film archive and repertory cinema, set in the old cold-store. The main plaza out front is where the place gathers — a coffee on the terrace, the brick all around. Check what's screening; the programme leans towards the kind of film nobody else shows.

4. Casa del Lector
The reading centre in the largest of the naves, three storeys of brick linked by raised walkways over the old killing floor. Wander in for the architecture even if there's no show on. The conversion is the cleverest in the whole complex.

5. Puente de Praga and the river edge
Leave the complex west to the river, where the Praga bridge crosses the Manzanares. Drop to the bank and turn north along the water — the slaughterhouse behind you, the river park ahead. The edge where the industry met the river.

6. Riverbank north to Pirámides
Follow the reclaimed bank upstream, the planted slopes on your right and the water on your left. It's a short, flat finish to Pirámides and Metro 5. Look back once at the brick mass of Matadero set against the river.

Matadero Madrid and Legazpi: the slaughterhouse and the river edge