4 Best Sights in Chueca, Madrid

Chueca's neighborhood market has been reborn. In 2022, the three-floor complex underwent a massive renovation that gutted and revamped the second floor and added 16 new stalls. After browsing the more traditional grocery stalls on the ground floor, take the escalator up to the second for a rollicking tapeo (tapas crawl), or go up one additional flight to imbibe at 11 Nudos, a sceney (if corporate-feeling) rooftop restaurant and bar owned by Spanish craft gin Nordés.

The intricate, over-the-top 18th-century doorway to this museum, formerly a hospice, is one of the finest pieces of baroque civil architecture in Spain, so it's a wonder that what lies beyond it flies under the radar of most tourists. Painted fans, period clothing, gleaming china and porcelain, and an exhibit on the Dos de Mayo Uprising are the main attractions, and there are usually a few paintings on loan from the Prado as well.

To catch a glimpse of how the Spanish bourgeoisie lived in the early 19th century, step into this former palace of a marquis. Each room sparkles with ornate period furniture, evocative portraits, and other historical artifacts culled from the height of Spanish Romanticism. It’s worth spending a few minutes admiring the flamboyantly decorated fans and backlit lithophanes as well as Goya's La Piedad, a little-known painting authenticated in 2011 that the museum acquired in 2023. The museum can be seen in an hour or two, but don’t rush out: the plant-filled interior patio is a lovely, tranquil place to enjoy tea and pastries.

A Moderniste palace commissioned in 1902 by the businessman and politician Javier González Longoria, the Palacio de Longoria was built by a disciple of Gaudí. The winding shapes, the plant motifs, and the wrought-iron balconies are reminiscent of Gaudí's works in Barcelona. The building's jewel is its main iron, bronze, and marble staircase, which is unfortunately off-limits to tourists because the building is now in private hands.