Madrid: an historical description and handbook of the Spanish capital

THE SPANISH SERIES MADRID
THE SPANISH SERIES Edited by ALBERT F. CALVERT

AN HISTORICAL DESCRIP TION AND HANDBOOK OF THE SPANISH CAPITAL, BY ALBERT F. CALVERT, WITH 453 ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMIX

TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.

Madrid is but a nursling among the cities of Spain. Marius Fulvius laid siege to Toledo nearly two centuries before the birth of Christ, and it is not until a thousand years later that we find the first historical mention of Madrid. London, under the title of Augusta, was one of the most important towns of Britain more than five hundred years before Don Ramiro II. of Leon razed Majerit, as it was then called, in 939. This is the first authoritative reference we have to Madrid. In 1540, Charles V. abandoned the time-honoured capitals of Valladolid, Seville, Zaragoza, and Toledo, to nurse his gout in the brisk, rarefied air of Madrid. In 1560 the city was declared “the only Court” by Philip II., and styled “Imperial y Coronada, muy noble y muy leal”; Ferdinand VII., in 1814, added the words “y muy heroica.”
Despite the flattering and dignified official epithets that have been bestowed upon it, Madrid possesses many natural features which militate against its popularity as a residential centre; but, despite its isolated and elevated position and the treacherousness of its climate, the city has not deserved the strictures that have been passed upon it by captious and prejudiced critics. For Madrid is a city of broad thoroughfares, magnificent public buildings, and handsome houses; and, since it has been rescued from its geographical remoteness by being made the centre of the Spanish railway system, it has become one of the most accessible and prosperous capitals of Europe.