Swashbuckling Madrid celebrates itself and life in general around the clock. A vibrant crossroads, Madrid—the Spanish capital since 1561—has an infectious appetite for art, music, and epicurean pleasure, and it's turned into a cosmopolitan, modern urban center while fiercely preserving its traditions. The rapid political and economic development of Spain following the arrival of democracy in 1977, the integration of the country in the European Union a decade later, and the social upheaval brought in by the many immigrants settling here after the new millennium have put Madrid back on the world stage with an energy redolent of its 17th-century golden age, when painters and playwrights swarmed to the flame of Spain's brilliant royal court. More »
Photo: Vinicius Tupinamba/Shutterstock
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