Conde Duque Quiet Plazas

Plaza de Cristino Martos sits as a quiet triangle where Calle de San Bernardo splits. It takes its name from a nineteenth century politician who served as the minister of state and president of the Congress of Deputies. Before it honored…

The Plaza de los Guardias de Corps features a distinct brick facade that curves around the corner of the building, marking the site of the former royal barracks. King Ferdinand the Sixth commissioned this structure in the eighteenth…

The facade of the Centro de Cultura Contemporánea Condeduque features a long, austere stretch of golden stone topped with a coat of arms belonging to Philip the Fifth. This structure began as a grand barracks for the Royal Guards in…

The Plaza de las Comendadoras centers on a stark, symmetrical limestone facade belonging to the Convent of the Comendadoras de Santiago. It remains a rare example of military-ordered architecture from the early eighteenth century, built to…

The Second Monastery of the Visitación stands out for its high, plain brick facade and the rounded, rhythmic window arches lining the upper story. In eighteen seventy-seven, the Salesian nuns of the Visitación moved into this space after…

The Church of Our Lady of Montserrat features a distinct, curved baroque facade that seems to bulge outward toward the street. It began as a seventeenth century project for Benedictine monks fleeing the Reformation in England. King Philip…

A hand-painted wooden sign hangs above the door of Cervantes y Compañía, announcing a bookstore that has occupied this corner of the Universidad neighborhood since nineteen twenty-four. Inside, the shelves reach toward the ceiling, packed…