Spain Guide
Madrid
Plaza de la Villa
West along c/Mayor, towards the Palacio Real, is Plaza de la Villa, an example of three centuries of Spanish architectural development. Its oldest surviving building is the eye-catching fifteenth-century Torre de los Lujanes, a fine Mudéjar (Moors working under Christian rule) tower, where Francis I of France is said to have been imprisoned in 1525 after his capture at the Battle of Pavia in Italy.
Opposite is the old town hall, the ayuntamiento (Casa de la Villa), begun in the seventeenth century, but remodelled in Baroque style (tours in Spanish only every Mon at 5pm; free). Finally, fronting the square is the Casa de Cisneros, built by a nephew of Cardinal Cisneros in the sixteenth-century Plateresque ("Silversmith") style. Baroque is also seen round the corner in c/San Justo, where the parish church of La Basilica de San Miguel (July– Sept 14: Mon– Sat 9.45am–1.40pm & 6–9pm, Sun 9.40am–1.40pm & 6.30–9pm; Sept 15– June 30: Mon– Sat 9.45am–2pm & 5.30–9pm, Sun 9.40am–2.40pm & 6–9pm) shows the imagination of the eighteenth-century Italian architects who designed it.