Located in the centre of the Buen Retiro Park in central Madrid is an imposing glass palace modelled on London's Crystal Palace. It was built around 36 years after its London counterpart in 1887, and designed by the architect Ricardo Velázquez Bosco who was responsible for another building in the park, the Palacio de Velázquez. He had also worked on such prestigious restoration projects as the Mezquita in Córdoba and the Alhambra in Granada.
The Palacio de Cristal, in the shape of a Greek cross, is made almost entirely of glass set in an iron framework on a brick base, which is decorated with ceramics. Its domed roofs makes the structure over 22 metres high. The glass palace was created in 1887 to house exotic flora and fauna as part of an exhibition on the Philippines, which was then still a Spanish colony. The exhibition spilled out into the park itself, and included a reconstruction of a native Philippino village. The palace is used today for contemporary art exhibitions organised through the Reina Sofia Museum.
In front of the entrance to the palace are steps leading down into the large artificial lake of the Retiro Park. The lake contains ducks. geese, black swans and terrapins, who will swim close to the steps, or you can hire boats on the lake for a closer view.
Only 19 years earlier, in 1868, the Parque del Buen Retiro had become the property of the City of Madrid. Prior to that, it had been the site of a Royal Palace and grounds. The original residence, built in 1632 for Philip IV, was located outside the official town limits as a royal retreat, but was destroyed during the Napoleonic period, and in the 17th century the grounds became a focus for festivals, bullfights, mock naval battles and theatre.
The park is set in around 130 hectares with a wide variety of over 15,000 trees, and is the venue for Madrid's annual book fair in May and June, where a long avenue of stalls present literature from all over the world in a variety of languages. There are a number of entrances to the park, the main one being in the Plaza de la Independencia, with other gates in the Calle de Alcala or Calle O'Donnell. The closest metro stations are Retiro and Banco de España.
Frutas Vázquez is a shop in Madrid which specialises in fruit. This is probable the most colourful establishment in the posh Salamanca district and it is popularly known as the 'Vazquez Jewels'. The establishment offers an attractive and rich display of fruit and vegetables with the best of each variety, and is located in the midst of the most exclusive boutiques in the city.
The shop has an exotic fruit and vegetables section, as well as Spanish varieties such as asparagus and strawberries from Aranjuez.
This greengrocer's usually supplies its products to members of the Royal House and other well-known personalities.
Calle de Ayala, 11. Metro Serrano
José Ramírez is a shop in Madrid which specialises in guitars. The Ramírez family have been making Spanish guitars since 1882 and José Ramírez guitars are still constructed from aged woods of the finest quality.
Nowadays the family continues to closely follow the standards of traditional crafts workshops, where the highest authority is that of the Maestro, who designs, controls the work of its workers and apprentices and signs the guitars that obtain his approval.
Part of the collection of guitars held by the Ramírez family is exhibited in the shop, so visitors can delight in the perfect finishes and the beauty of the materials used.
Calle de la Paz, 8. Metro Sol
La Duquesita is a shop in Madrid which specialises in cakes. La Duquesita, one of the most famous cake shops in Madrid in the early 20th century, is located in Fernando VI street, just a few metres away from one of the best architectural works in the modernistic style, the Longoria palace. This cake shop, open since 1914, has kept the charm of the times when it was founded, with its wooden façade and a warm and traditional interior presided over by an alabaster doll. Roscones de Reyes (ring-shaped sponge cake with sugar and glazed fruit), traditionally eaten around Christmas time, and especially for the 'Día de Reyes' or Epiphany, and other large cakes are part of its specialities.
Fernando VI, 2. Metro Alonso Martinez
La Favorita is a shop in Madrid which specialises in hats. La Favorita is found on Plaza Mayor, Madrid's expansive central plaza, just to the left of the Casa de la Panaderia. Founded in 1894, it is the oldest hat shop in Madrid and sells all types of felt hats, top hats, bowler hats, caps and berets. Essential accessories at the end of the 19th century and the early 20th century, these items are still particularly attractive and never go out of fashion.
Plaza Mayor, 25. Metrol Sol
La Mallorquina is a shop in Madrid which specialises in cakes. Founded in 1894 by Juan Ripio from Majorca, the Pastelería La Mallorquina is located in one of Madrid's most privileged spots: La Puerta del Sol. Its specialities are napolitanas (flaky buns filled with custard or chocolate), rosquillas (small ring-shaped sweet buns) and truffles, which can be eaten at the counter or in the tea room. Every day there are crowds of people at the counters, buying or eating the excellent products offered. Other delights on sale are the pastries, shortbread, croissants, cream buns, chocolate cakes and a hundred other varieties on display, all homemade and fresh from the oven in the back store.
Plaza de la Puerta del Sol, 2. Metro Sol
La Violeta is a shop in Madrid which specialises in violet sweets. Open since 1915, this elegant confectioner's shop owes its fame to a very particular product: violet sweets, whose name is due to their shape, their colour and that the essence of the flower is part of their ingredients.
This establishment, not far away from the Puerta del Sol Square, has kept its original wooden façade and its jars and little boxes of sweets have always had loyal and illustrious customers, like Jacinto Benavente or Queen Victoria Eugenia.
Other typical products of this confectioner's shop are natural violets glazed with sugar, glazed fruit, chocolates and marrons glacés.
Plaza de Canalejas, 6. Metro Sol
Mercería Comercial Amparo is a shop in Madrid which specialises in sewing items. This haberdashery is very popular for people in search of cotton threads, buttons, zips, bands or any other item related to sewing that may seem impossible to find.
This small and traditional confectioner's of golden walls is paradise for chocolate lovers.
This is where Evita Perón used to come when she was in Spain to buy lenguas de gato (literally, cat's tongues), one of the most traditional Spanish chocolates.
You can also try their 'santas', made of marzipan and pistachio, pralines, truffles or 'leña vieja' (uneven trunk-shaped milk chocolate that truly melts in your mouth). Other specialities include bonbons, naranjines (oranges covered in chocolate), marrón glaçé (sugar-glazed chestnuts) and giant 50-gram bonbons.
Tea Time is a shop in Madrid which specialises in tea. Situated right opposite the well-known Chocolateria San Ginés, this lovely establishment stocks almost one hundred different types of tea in tin boxes kept on the shelves. It also sells multicoloured tins, cups, teapots and other accessories to enjoy this exquisite drink.
Plazuela de San Ginés,3 . Metro Sol
Founded in the 17th century, El Convento de Corpus Christi, is a convent located in the heart of the historic Madrid of the Habsburgs.
It is popularly known as 'El Convento de Las Carboneras' because of a painting representing the Virgen de la Inmaculada that was found by some children in a pile of charcoal, and which was presented to the church.
In this convent, the Hieronimus nuns make delicious traditional sweets such as almond biscuits, tocinillos de cielo (creamy egg yolk and sugar dessert, topped with caramel), Sherry mantecados (soft lard biscuits) or naranjines (orange sweets).
On the left of the convent is an old wooden door (see photo). You have to ring the bell, tell them what you want and they will open the door for you. The sell their pastries from 09:30 to 13:00 and from 16:00 to 18:30
Located in the Chueca neighbourhood, this shop is a must if you are interested in learning about the Madrid of the past.
Here, you can find over 250,000 different postcards, all classified by country, city and topic.
You can also find original photos of the city, old posters classified by topic such as Bullfights, Feast Days, Tourism in Spain or Football, and many different collectable items such as toys, porcelain figures, music boxes, tin boxes, etc.
This traditional cake shop, open since 1855, is well-known for its Spanish nougat or 'turrón', traditional in Spain during the Christmas period, but which is sold in this establishment all year round.
The nougat comes in all sorts of varieties, from the classic Jijona and Alicante to toasted egg yolk or chocolate.
Among the specialities there are also other Christmas sweets, such as marzipan, polvorones (flaky biscuits) and yemas de nuez (walnut and egg-yolk pastries). All the products are handmade using the finest ingredients in the old-fashioned way with no preservatives or artificial colourings.
This establishment is also known for being a supplier to the Royal Household.
Casa Jiménez is an establishment in the centre of Madrid where you can find two traditional Spanish items: shawls and embroidered veils. Its Manila shawls, hand-embroidered in natural silk, are true works of art.
Caramelos Paco is a shop in Madrid which specialises in sweets. Every kind of sweet may be found here: from champagne or ginseng flavoured sweets to jelly sweets in the shape of cold meats, and the latest items on the market such as sugarless sweets in all sorts of flavours or special items for smokers.
If you like sweets, you'll go crazy just looking at the shop window of Caramelos Paco.
This establishment, located in the centre of Madrid, is over 100 years old.
Visitors here can find genuine works of art in quality ceramic, both handcrafted and hand-painted, such as sangria pitchers, dinnerware, tea sets, plates, and vases. The shop has original designs and also replicas of models created from the 10th to the 18th century.
The pieces come from the locations in Spain famous for their ceramic and potteries such as Talavera, Toledo, Manises, Valencia, Puente del Arzobispo, Alcora, Granada, and Seville.
This shop was founded in 1863 and is an 'espartería', or store specialising in artesan products made from esparto grass: espadrilles, footwear made of this natural fibre and an essential item in many Spanish households.
Calle del Divino Pastor, 29. Metro San Bernardo
Alambique specialises in cooking items for Spanish food and other cuisines. It offers all that you need to learn the best Spanish and international recipes at all levels. It sells traditional cooking utensils such as frying pans, sauce pans, bowls, etc. and also new or unusual ones as well. The shop also offers lessons in cooking techniques where the objects in the shop are tried and the students are shown how to use them, so that they can become real cooking experts.
Plaza de la Encarnación, 2. Metro Santo Domingo
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