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Map of Madrid
A centre of crooked streets fanning out, wrapped in the orderly grid of the later districts, with two large green areas on either side. Madrid reads from the inside out.
What you see on the map
The old town. Around Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor, an irregular pattern of streets leaving in every direction: this is the oldest Madrid, and on the map it is the area with the finest grain.
The extensions. To the north and east, Chamberí and the Salamanca district: regular blocks laid out in the second half of the nineteenth century, in contrast with the centre.
The Retiro. The large green rectangle to the east, with its pond. On the other side, to the west, the Campo del Moro gardens and the start of the Casa de Campo.
The Manzanares. The river runs down the west and south, with the green strip of its banks. And to the south, the fan of tracks of Atocha station.
Which scale and paper suit it
1:25,000 on a 30 cm square, as in the picture, takes in the central core, from the river to the Salamanca district. At that scale the city is drawn as blocks, and you can see at a glance where the old town ends and the grid begins.
1:10,000 on A3 goes down to the detail of the centre: the Habsburg quarter, Las Letras or Malasaña with every building.
In a circle, centred near Sol, the Retiro and the river sit on either side, almost symmetrical.
Make it yours
Open the example and move the frame: go up the Castellana towards Chamartín, or take it south, to Madrid Río and Arganzuela.
Change all the colours at once with a theme (black ink, sepia, night, blueprint) and download it as PNG. With a free account, also element by element, at 600 dpi, as vector PDF and as SVG.
