Plaza de España: the renovated square and the western Gran Vía
Cervantes in bronze, two 1950s towers, and the slope down to an Egyptian temple at sunset. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Monumento a Cervantes
The centre of the square: Cervantes in stone above Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in bronze, the pair riding out across the basin. Walk round the back where the readers of the world sit looking up — most people only ever see the front.

2. Edificio España
The 1953 skyscraper that announced Franco's Madrid had arrived — twenty-five storeys of brick and stone, empty for years, now a hotel. Stand at the base and look straight up the corner; the thing was built to be looked up at.

3. Torre de Madrid
Its taller, slimmer neighbour, briefly the tallest concrete building in the world when it topped out in 1957. The two towers together are the whole 1950s argument about Spanish modernity. You don't have to love them; just register the ambition.

4. Plaza de España gardens
The square reopened in 2021 buried half its traffic and laid a green carpet over the top. Walk the new paths toward the river side — the point of the redesign was to let you stroll straight off the square instead of dodging cars.

5. Templo de Debod
An actual Egyptian temple, second century BC, given to Spain by Egypt and rebuilt stone by stone on a hill above the river. Come for sunset; the pools mirror it and the whole western sky goes behind it. The best free thing in this part of Madrid.

6. Mirador del Templo de Debod
The terrace just west of the temple, looking out over the Casa de Campo and the Sierra beyond. This is where the city comes to watch the sun go down. Walk down the slope afterwards to Príncipe Pío for the metro home.

Plaza de España: the renovated square and the western Gran Vía