Plaza de España is Madrid trying to look like a capital, and for once getting away with it. The square spent decades as a traffic island with a literary monument marooned in the middle; the 2021 renovation sank the cars and handed the space back to people on foot. Start here in the early evening and walk west, downhill, toward the river — the whole route falls gently toward the light.
Begin at the Monumento a Cervantes, the writer in stone above Quixote and Sancho cast in bronze, and walk round the back where the world's readers sit looking up. Then the two towers: the Edificio España of 1953 and the slimmer Torre de Madrid behind it, the 1950s insisting on a skyline. Cross the new gardens to the western edge.
The Templo de Debod is the reward and the surprise — a genuine Egyptian temple, given to Spain in 1968, rebuilt on a hill where the barracks used to stand. Time it for sunset; the reflecting pools double it and the sky behind goes copper. End at the mirador, then walk the slope down to Príncipe Pío.
