Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "McKinley, William" to "Magnetism, Terrestrial" / Volume 17, Slice 3

by Various

The Sierra de Guadarrama has quarries of granite, lime and gypsum, and is known to contain iron, copper and argentiferous lead; but these resources are undeveloped. Other industries are chiefly confined to the capital; but cloth, leather, paper, earthenware, porcelain, glass, bricks and tiles, ironware, soap, candles, chocolate and lace are also manufactured on a small scale beyond its boundaries. There is very little commerce except for the supply of the capital with necessaries.

Besides the local lines, all the great railways in the kingdom converge in this province, and it contains in all 221 m. of line. Besides Madrid, the towns of Aranjuez (12,670) and Alcalá de Henares (11,206) and the Escorial are described in separate articles. The other towns with more than 5000 inhabitants are Vallecas (10,128), Colmenar de Oreja (6182), Colmenar Viejo (5255) and Carabanchel Bajo (5862).

MADRID, the capital of Spain and of the province of Madrid, on the left bank of the river Manzanares, a right-hand tributary of the Jarama, which flows south into the Tagus. Pop. (1877), 397,816; (1887), 472,228; (1897), 512,150; (1900), 539,835. Madrid was the largest city in Spain in 1900; it is the see of an archbishop, the focus of the principal Spanish railways, the headquarters of an army corps, the seat of a university, the meeting-place of parliament, and the chief residence of the king, the court, and the captain-general of New Castile. It is, however, surpassed in ecclesiastical importance by Toledo and in commerce by Barcelona.

Situation and Climate.—Madrid is built on an elevated and undulating plateau of sand and clay, which is bounded on the north by the Sierra Guadarrama and merges on all other sides into the barren and treeless table-land of New Castile. Numerous water-courses (arroyos), dry except at rare intervals, furrow the surface of the plateau; these as they pass through the city have in certain cases been converted into roads—e.g. the Paseo de Recoletos and Prado, which are still so liable to be flooded after prolonged rain that special channels have been constructed to carry away the water. The highest point in Madrid is 2372 ft. above sea-level. The city is close to the geographical centre of the peninsula, nearly equidistant from the Bay of Biscay, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Owing to its high altitude and open situation it is liable to sudden and frequent variations of climate, and the daily range of temperature sometimes exceeds 50° F. In summer the heat is rendered doubly oppressive by the fiery, dust-laden winds which sweep across the Castilian table-land; at this season a temperature of 109° has been registered in the shade. In winter the northerly gales from the Sierra Guadarrama bring intense cold; snow falls frequently, and skating is carried on in the Buen Retiro park. A Spanish proverb describes the wind of Madrid as so deadly and subtle that “it will kill a man when it will not blow out a candle”; but, though pulmonary diseases are not uncommon, the climate appears to be exceptionally healthy. In 1901 the death-rate was 22.07 per 1000, or lower than that of any other town on the Spanish mainland. The Sierra Guadarrama renders the atmosphere unusually dry and clear by intercepting the moisture of the north-western winds which prevail in summer; hence the average dally number of deaths decreases from 80 in winter to about 25 in summer. The sanitation of the older quarters is defective, and overcrowding is common, partly owing to the royal decrees which formerly prohibited the extension of the city; but much has been done in modern times to remove or mitigate these evils.

The Inner City.—The form of Madrid proper (exclusive of the modern suburbs) is almost that of a square with the corners rounded off; from east to west it measures rather less than from north to south. It was formerly surrounded by a poor wall, partly of brick, partly of earth, some 20 ft. in height, and pierced by five principal gates (puertas) and eleven doorways (portillos). Of these only three, the Puerta de Alcalá on the east, the Puerta de Toledo on the south and the Portillo de San Vicente on the west, actually exist; the first and the third were erected in the time of Charles III. (1759-1788), and the second in honour of the restoration of Ferdinand VII. (1827). The Manzanares—or rather its bed, for the stream is at most seasons of the year quite insignificant—is spanned by six bridges, the Puente de Toledo and Puente de Segovia being the chief.

The Puerta del Sol is the centre of Madrid, the largest of its many plazas, and the place of most traffic. It derived its name from the former east gate of the city, which stood here until 1570, and had on its front a representation of the sun. On its south side stands the Palacio de la Gobernacion, or ministry of the interior, a heavy square building by a French architect, J. Marquet, dating from 1768. From the Puerta del Sol diverge, immediately or mediately, ten of the principal streets of Madrid—eastward by north, the Calle de Alcalá, terminating beyond the Buen Retiro park; eastward, the Carrera de San Jeronimo, terminating by the Plaza de las Cortes in the Prado; southward, the Calle de Carretas; westward, the Calle Mayor, which leads to the council chamber and to the palace, and the Calle del Arenal, terminating in the Plaza de Isabel II. and the royal opera house; north-westward, the Calles de Preciados and Del Carmen; and northward, the Calle de la Montera, which afterwards divides into the Calle de Fuencarral to the left and the Calle de Hortaleza to the right. The contract for another wide street through central Madrid, to be called the Gran Via, was given to an English firm in 1905.

The Calle de Alcalá is bordered on both sides with acacias, and contains the Real Academia de Bellas Artes, founded in 1752 as an academy of art and music; its collection of paintings by Spanish masters includes some of the best-known works of Murillo. The handsome Bank of Spain (1884-1891) stands where the Calle de Alcalá meets the Prado; in the oval Plaza de Madrid, at the same point, is a fine 18th-century fountain with a marble group representing the goddess Cybele drawn in a chariot by two lions. The Calle de Alcalá is continued eastward past the Buen Retiro gardens and park, and through the Plaza de Independencia, in the middle of which is the Puerta de Alcalá. The Plaza de las Cortes is so called from the Congreso de los Diputados, or House of Commons, on its north side. The square contains a bronze statue of Cervantes, by Antonio Sola, erected in 1835. The Calle de Carretas, on the west side of which is the General Post Office, ranks with the Carrera de San Jeronimo and Calle de la Montera for the excellence of its shops. From the Calle Mayor is entered the Plaza Mayor, a rectangle of about 430 ft. by 330 ft., formerly the scene of tournaments, bull fights, autos de fé, acts of canonization (including that of Ignatius Loyola in 1622) and similar exhibitions, which used to be viewed by the royal family from the balcony of one of the houses called the Panaderia (belonging to the guild of bakers). The square, which was built under Philip III. in 1619, is surrounded by an arcade; the houses are uniform in height and decoration. In the centre stands a bronze equestrian statue of Philip III., designed by Giovanni da Bologna, after a painting by Pantoja de la Cruz, and finished by Pietro Tacca. From the south-east angle of the Plaza Mayor the Calle de Atocha, one of the principal thoroughfares of Madrid, leads to the outskirts of the inner city; it contains two large hospitals and part of the university buildings (faculty of medicine). The house occupied by Cervantes from 1606 until his death in 1616 stands at the point where it meets the Calle de Léon; in this street is the Real Academia de la Historia, with a valuable library and collections of MSS. and plate. From the south-west angle of the Plaza Mayor begins the Calle de Toledo, the chief mart for the various woollen and silken fabrics from which the picturesque costumes peculiar to the peninsula are made. In the Plaza de Isabel II., at the western extremity of the Calle del Arenal, stands the royal opera-house, the principal front of which faces the Plaza del Oriente and the royal palace. In the centre of the plaza is a fine bronze equestrian statue of Philip IV. (1621-1665); it was designed by Velazquez and cast by Tacca, while Galileo is said to have suggested the means by which the balance is preserved. The gift of the grand duke of Tuscany in 1640, it stood in the Buen Retiro gardens until 1844.

Modern Development of the City.—The north and east of the city—the new suburbs—have developed past the Retiro Park as far as the Bull-ring, and have covered all the vast space included between the Retiro, the Bull-ring, the long Castellana Drive to the race-course and the exhibition building. On the slopes of the other side of the Castellana, and along what were the northern limits of Madrid in 1875, the modern suburbs have extended to the vicinity of the fine cellular prison that was built at the close of the reign of King Alphonso XII. to replace the gloomy building known as El Saladero.

The new parts of the capital, with their broad streets and squares, and their villas sometimes surrounded with gardens, their boulevards lined by rather stunted trees, and their modern public buildings, all resemble the similar features of other European capitals, and contrast with the old Madrid that has preserved so many of its traits in architecture, popular life and habits. Some of the streets have been slightly widened, and in many thoroughfares new houses are being built among the ugly, irregular dwelling-places of the 18th and earlier centuries. This contrast is to be seen especially in and about the Calle Mayor, the Plaza Mayor, the Calle de Toledo, the Rastro, and the heart of the city.