Madrid, Spain: Self-Guided Walking Tour

The best things to do in Madrid include exploring royal palaces, world-class art museums, historic squares and remarkable churches. Spain’s capital is especially rewarding on foot, with major sights ranging from the Royal Palace and Almudena Cathedral to the Prado, Puerta del Sol and the Temple of Debod. Neywo offers a free audio guide for Madrid with 116 narrated places.

Madrid is a city where royal history, art and public life meet across a compact urban landscape. As you walk between its museums, plazas and palaces, the city’s history becomes easier to understand through the buildings themselves.

What to see in Madrid

Royal Palace of Madrid

The Royal Palace of Madrid, also called Palacio Real, is the official residence of the Spanish royal family and is mainly used for state ceremonies and other solemn occasions. With about 135,000 square metres and 3,418 rooms, it is described as the largest palace in Western Europe.

The palace was built on the site of the Real Alcázar, which was almost entirely destroyed by fire on 24 December 1734. Construction began in 1738, reusing foundations and some structures from the former fortress. Inside, the Stradivarius Palatinos collection is one of the distinctive highlights, including a complete set of Stradivarius string quintet instruments.

Almudena Cathedral

Facing the Royal Palace, Almudena Cathedral is Madrid’s Catholic cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin Mary under the title of the Almudena. Its design was planned as part of the palace complex, giving the building an unusual north–south orientation rather than the more typical east–west alignment.

The cathedral is 102 metres long and reaches a maximum height of 73 metres. Its exterior is neoclassical, while the interior is neo-Gothic and the crypt is neo-Romanesque. Construction began in 1883 and continued for more than a century before the cathedral was consecrated on 15 June 1993 by Pope John Paul II.

Royal Basilica of Saint Francis the Great

The Royal Basilica of Saint Francis the Great belongs to the Franciscan convent of Jesús y María. The present neoclassical basilica was built in the second half of the 18th century, based on a design by Francisco Cabezas, developed by Antonio Pló and completed by Francesco Sabatini.

Its great dome is one of the building’s defining features and is considered the third-largest circular dome in Christendom by diameter. The interior decoration dates mainly from the end of the 19th century, while the pinacoteca contains Spanish paintings from the 17th to the 19th centuries, including works by Zurbarán and Goya.

Museo del Prado

The Museo Nacional del Prado is one of the world’s leading art museums. Its collection is particularly strong in Spanish painting, with Velázquez, El Greco and Goya at its centre. Goya is the most extensively represented artist in the museum.

The Prado also holds major works connected with Titian, Rubens and Hieronymus Bosch, as well as paintings by artists including Raphael, Dürer, Van Dyck, Fra Angelico, Murillo, Ribera, Zurbarán and Sorolla. Its collection grew from the former Spanish royal collection, with later acquisitions adding to rather than radically changing its original character.

Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum complements the Prado and the Reina Sofía by covering a broad range of European and American painting. Its main collection is displayed in the historic Palacio de Villahermosa on Plaza de Neptuno.

The museum’s story in Spain began with an agreement to lease the collection in 1988. The Spanish government acquired its most valuable core in July 1993. Today, the main collection contains more than 700 works, with further exhibition space added in a neighbouring building in 2004.

Museo Reina Sofía

The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía is Spain’s national museum of 20th-century and contemporary art. Its main building, known as the edificio Sabatini, was originally designed as a hospital by José de Hermosilla and later continued by Francesco Sabatini. The museum opened in 1992 and expanded in 2005 with the edificio Nouvel.

The permanent collection is especially known for major works by Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Joan Miró. Surrealism and Cubism are important themes, with works by artists including Francis Picabia, René Magritte, Óscar Domínguez, Yves Tanguy, Juan Gris, María Blanchard and Georges Braque.

Temple of Debod

The Temple of Debod is one of Madrid’s most unexpected sights: an ancient Nubian temple from Egypt in Parque del Oeste. Originally erected in the early 2nd century BC about 15 kilometres south of Aswan, it was donated to Spain in 1968 in recognition of Spanish participation in the campaign to save the monuments of Nubia.

The temple was dismantled, transported and rebuilt in Parque de la Montaña between 1970 and 1972. It was positioned to preserve approximately its original east–west orientation. Its oldest core may date from the reign of Ptolemy IV Philopator, while later additions came from the Ptolemaic and Roman-imperial periods.

Puerta del Sol

Puerta del Sol is one of Madrid’s busiest and best-known public squares. Its clock marks the traditional eating of the Twelve Grapes at midnight on 31 December, a New Year tradition broadcast live since 31 December 1962.

The half-moon-shaped square brings together several important symbols of Madrid. A statue of Carlos III on horseback stands at its centre, facing the modern glass train station. The red-brick building opposite began as a post office during the reign of Carlos III and later became the regional government headquarters.

National Museum of Archaeology

The National Museum of Archaeology, or Museo Arqueológico Nacional, shares its building with the National Library of Spain. It is Spain’s main museum devoted to archaeology, with collections spanning the period from Prehistory to the Modern Age.

The museum also includes material from outside Spain, particularly Ancient Greece and Magna Grecia, along with smaller collections from Ancient Egypt and the Near East. After renovation, the collections were arranged around a naturally illuminated central atrium. The museum was declared a historical-artistic monument in 1962.

Royal Spanish Academy

The Royal Spanish Academy, or Real Academia Española, was founded in 1713 on the initiative of Juan Manuel Fernández Pacheco, VIII Duke of Escalona and Marquess of Villena. King Felipe V approved its constitution the following year and placed the institution under his protection.

The Academy’s best-known works include the Diccionario de la lengua española and its grammar. Its main headquarters, in the Los Jerónimos neighbourhood, opened on Calle Felipe IV in 1894.

Sorolla Museum

The Sorolla Museum occupies the house and workshop of Joaquín Sorolla on the paseo del General Martínez Campos. Built in 1911 under the direction of Enrique María Repullés, the palacete was designed to combine Sorolla’s home, studio and garden.

Many rooms preserve their original atmosphere, while the collection brings together Sorolla’s paintings and objects he gathered as a collector. The museum was created following a donation by Sorolla’s wife, Clotilde García del Castillo, and opened in 1932.

Liria Palace and Las Descalzas Reales

Liria Palace is the neoclassical Madrid residence of the Dukes of Alba and the official capital residence of the Casa de Alba. Built in the 18th century, it contains 200 rooms across 3,500 square metres and is associated with the family’s art collection and historical archive. Its gardens are another defining feature.

The Convent of Las Descalzas Reales is a royal monastery founded in 1559 by Juana de Austria. This 16th-century classicist building remains a cloistered monastery of the clarisas coletinas and also contains a museum with important works of art.

A Madrid self-guided walking tour with Neywo

Neywo’s free Madrid audio guide includes eight walking tours and one bus route, with narration available in 11 languages. The walks range from 0.87 to 5.27 kilometres and from 42 to 210 minutes, with between 4 and 15 narrated stops. The bus route covers 3.6 kilometres in 15 minutes and has 9 stops.

The routes include Habsburg Madrid and the Royal Palace, Barrio de las Letras and the Prado boulevard, the Golden Triangle of Art, Puerta del Sol and Las Descalzas Reales, Recoletos, Alcalá and Cibeles, and a longer route from the Royal Palace to the Reina Sofía. The bus route follows Calle de Serrano to Plaza de España along Gran Vía.

Download Neywo and explore Madrid at your own pace. The app tells the story of each place as you reach it, with no group and no schedule. You can also continue discovering Spain, including destinations such as Alcalá de Henares, Mérida and Cáceres.