History of Madrid

Prehistoric and Roman time

There exist archaeological discoveries which show the existence of a human presence on the terraces of the Manzanares river since the Paléolithique. However, there do not exist evidence of the existence of a fixed settlement during the times Roman and wisigothic. Despite everything, in Carabanchel was a relai of station (in Latin, mansio) called Miacium , who was located on the way who went from Titulcia to Segovia .

Origin

Moslem domination

The first historical trace of what is the city of Madrid today, dates from the time of the Moslem domination, concretely at the end of the IXe century, when the Cordovan emir Muhammad I (852-886) draws up a fortress on a headland close to the river of Manzanares, in a place currently occupied by the Palais Royal. The function of this fortress is to supervise the collars of the sierra of Guadarrama to protect Tolède, the capital antique wisigothe. Also that of Ribat, i.e., gathering and the starting point of the campaigns against the Christian kingdoms of north. For example, in 977, Almanzor begins its countryside in Madrid. When the caliphate of Cordoue disintegrates, Madrid belonged to the kingdom taifa of Tolède.

Near this fortification, a small enclave known under the name of Mayrit was created (for the Magerit Christians) which was the object of several attacks of the Christian kings during the Reconquest, for example, Ramiro II of León tries to occupy it in 932.

When Tolède goes to Alphonse VI of Castille between 1083 and 1085, the city passes to the hands Christians without fight, like various other villages of the kingdom of Tolède.

Christian conquest

The city is repopulated by Christians, without its Jewish and Moslem population being expelled (even if some of the Moslem religious buildings are requisitioned; thus, the large mosque is transformed into church under the invocation of Holy Marie).

To this old time of Christian domination the worships go back from the owners of Madrid: the discovery of a statue of the Virgin in the external wall on November 9th 1085. This statue is that of the Vierge of Almudena , owner of Madrid. San Isidro is born towards 1082 and dies the November 30th 1172. It is patron saint of the City and it had large a devotion with the Virgin of Almudena.

Madrid is transformed downtown Castilian and a free commune related to the crown ( city of the royal field ) and whose privileges are confirmed in 1123 by a Carta de Otorgamiento (charter of Privileges), given by Alphonse VII) and into 1222 ( fuero promulgated during the reign of Alphonse VIII of Castille, which puts under the jurisdiction of Madrid three sexmos or departments rural:

Sexmo of Vallecas, formed by Vallecas, Vicálvaro, Ambróz, Coslada, Rivetted, Vaciamadrid, Velilla, Rejas, Canillas, Hortaleza, Chamartín, Fuencarral and Fuentelfresno.
Sexmo of Villaverde, formed by Villaverde, Getafe, Fuenlabrada, Torrejón of Calzada, Casarrubios, Humanejos and Perales.
Sexmo of Aravaca, formed by Aravaca, Tired Rozas, Majadahonda, Boadilla, Alcorcón, Leganés, and los Carabancheles Yuso and Suso (Viola and Bajo) except for the castle and ground surrounding it pertaining to the Order of Santiago since 1206.

In this manner, Madrid will hold under its jurisdiction the grounds and mounts of Madrid as well as part of the Sierra. At that time one builds assisted it wall of Madrid (known like Christian wall).

During first half of the XIVe century, the importance of the locality increases because of its strategic situation on the ways of transhumance which start to be stabilized and which connect the plates north and south. In fact, in the Cortes de Alcalá of 1348, Alphonse XI, fixed to twenty four the number of cities having the right to be represented with the the Cortes de Castille, and the town of Madrid is one of them; when Juan II tiny room the number with ten eights, it maintains its right of representation. Also at this period, the archbishop of Tolède and private adviser of the king, gift Gil de Albornoz, converts it into archpriest, separating his religious administration from Alcalá de Henares. In second half of the century, the monarchs of the Maison dynasty of Trastamare (Henri III, Jean II and Henri IV) attend the city to practice hunting. The last of them maintains a house (in the current street of Santa Clara), which is converted during its reign into one of the main home of king de Castille. Let us note the fact that the Cortes de Castille meet up to three times in the town of Madrid during this period, proof of the special predilection of the Trastamare dynasty for the city.

During XVe century, the city continues to grow to reach approximately 5000 inhabitants at the end of the century. The most important outstanding facts will be the recognition of Madrid like city with a representation in the Cortes and the expulsion of the Jews in 1492 followed by the destruction of the ghetto of Lavapiés.

War of the Communities of Castille

During the year 1520, it Malayan of the cities Castilians vis-a-vis Charles I is increasing. During the Cortes convened initially with Saint-Jacques-with-Compostelle and then with Corogne, several cities, whose Madrid, refuse to vote subsidies that the king claims to finance imperial crowning in Germany. Finally, the Communautés of Castille are raised out of weapons in several cities.

Madrid joint with the movement and links its troops under the command of Juan de Zapata. This one, with the Community captains Juan Cheer (Segovia), Juan de Padilla (Tolède) and Francisco de Maldonado (Salamanque) represents the Castilians raised in front of the queen Jeanne I with Tordesillas, where it was recluse.

Not obstant, rising ends in June 1521, when, after the rout of the Community troops with Villalar and a seat, the royal army enters Madrid.

The Capital and Austrians

After having choked the Community revolt, Charles I was generous with Madrid and concedes to him the titles of Coronada E Imperial (Crowned and Imperial), beginning the transformation of old the alcazar Arab.

In June 1561, when the city counted already 30.000 inhabitants, Philippe II transports the court of Tolède to Madrid, installing it in the ancient alcazar. The reasons which one gives for this transfer are very varied: among them, one finds the need for separating the Court from the influence of the powerful archbishop of Tolède, and the great sadness of the young queen Isabelle de Valois, lack air between the walls of severe the alcazar tolédan. It was urgent for her husband to find a new seat for the Court. The microclimate inhabitant of Madrid, more suave that of Tolède, the geographical location and its splendid natural environment, made to city a very suitable candidate. Following this choice, the town of Madrid became a political center of monarchy.

Result of the arrival of the court, the population of the city starts to grow at accelerated intervals. Building noble, churches and convents are built. Most remarkable are those rested by the king, like the Monastère of Encarnación and that of mow Descalzas Reales. One falls the old wall and, in 1566, one rebuilds of it a news, the third of its history. Arrive in the capital of people to satisfy the needs for the court, as well as an incalculable number applicants, adventurers, candidates with the loads, rascals… who were described by the literature of the century of gold. The policy of the king gives a special aspect to the city: he declares that because of the lack of suitable livable places for its noble and advisers, the second floors of the houses are expropriés, which become royal property. The consequence of this directive is that all new constructions have nothing any more but one stage, with a patio and a grid, and a second stage hidden with the sight of the city council men of the city. In 1562, Philippe II buys the fields and gardens of what later will be the Casa of Campo , that to be used as hunting preserve.

In 1601, Philippe III, according to the councils of its favorite, the Duc of Lerma orders the transfer of the court to Valladolid, where it remains five years. In 1606, the court returns to Madrid. After this return, Philippe III makes decisions which will have a strong impact for the future aspect of the city: in 1616 it orders the construction of the Plaza Mayor and in 1618 it buys and increases with gardens and fountains the grounds which currently constitute the Parc of Retiro .

His/her son and successor, Philippe IV, orders to build, in 1625, the fourth wall of Madrid, which will be maintained until the medium of the XIXe century. During the reign of Philippe IV, Madrid lived one exceptional period of cultural splendor, with the presence in the town of geniuses of the size of Cervantes, Quevedo, Góngora, Velázquez, Lope de Vega or Calderón of Barca.

During the dynasty of the Habsbourg, the city undergoes a fundamental transformation. The medieval core (around the current street of Segovia ) is relocated towards the vicinity of the renovated Alcazar. One builds all the buildings necessary for the administration of Hispanic Monarchy: ECSC (Mint) (on current the Place of the East), the Palate of los Consejos (current General Capitanía ), the Cárcel of Corte (current seat of the Ministry for the External Businesses), etc

First Bourbons

With died of Charles II, bursts the War of succession of Spain, in which Madrid supports as of the Philippe beginning of Anjou as a Philippe. So well the city is occupied by Anglo-Portuguese armies which proclaim king the Archiduc Charles of Austria under the name of Charles III (1706). Again, in 1710, Madrid remains faithful to Philippe V (after his second entry in Madrid, the Charles archduke made the comment " this city is a desert ").

Philippe V starts the first stages of a reform of the town planning of the capital. The urban transformations started during the magistrature of the Marquis de Vadillo (1715 - 1730) in the south-western periphery of the city. Under the direction of Pedro de Ribera, is built the Bridge of Tolède and its access. One levels left bank of the Manzanares where one raises the church of the Virgin of the Port . At the same time, one begins the construction of the Palais Royal , from which work begins in 1738 in the place from the old alcazar, destroyed by a fire in 1734 (in any event, of the alcazar at all the king, accustomed did not like the excessive austerity at the French court). The construction of the palate was entrusted to Juan Bautista Sachetti and was prolonged until the reign of Charles III (in 1764), with the intervention of the architects Sabatini and Ventura Rodríguez.

After the reforms of Ferdinand VI, which ordered the construction of the Couvent of mow Salesas Reales , arrives at the throne Charles III, which will be known like the best mayor ( alcalde ) of Madrid. Charles III proposed to make of Madrid a capital worthy of this name, with the construction of walks, the creation of systems sewerages and of public lighting, the pavement of the streets and while decorating quotes it monuments. One also begins the construction of cemeteries apart from the city instead of being in the churches and the convents.

In addition to being known the like one of largest benefactors of Madrid, its beginnings were not whole rest, since in 1766 it had to face the Soulèvement of Esquilache, a movement traditionalist inspired by the nobility and the clergy against the renovating tendencies which Charles III brought. The pretext was of it the decree on the clothing which ordered the shortening of the capes and the prohibition of the use of the hats which hid the faces.

From its reign go back the Basilique to San Francisco el Grande (1761-1770); the Put of Correos , current seat of the Presidency of the autonomous Communauté of Madrid (1766-1768); the Put Real of Aduana , current seat of the Ministry for Finances (1769), the Porte of Alcalá (1769-1778) or the Palais of Benavente , current Ministère of Defense (1777).

Other outstanding facts are the opening to the public of the Parc of the '' Buen Retiro '' (1761); the beginning of work of the Salón del Prado (1775) (what later will become the Paseo del Prado with the fountains of Neptune, Apollon and Cybèle) or of the Musée of Prado , conceived to be a Cabinet of Natural history (1785); the rebuilding of the General hospital, currently National museum Centers Art Reina Sofia (1776) or the creation of the Botanical garden (1781), to replace that older of Migas Calientes . Also advances the project of the Cuesta de San Vicente (1767-1777) and one builds the fixes Real (street Royale).

The reign of Charles IV, in the middle of cataclysms which touch Europe, is not very outstanding for Madrid. The single one made mention is the beginning of the final replanning of the Plaza Mayor (1790).

The population of the city believes with the progress and the peace which accompany the arrival on the throne by Ferdinand VI. In 1787, one carries out the first official Recensement city, which gives a figure of 156.672 inhabitants for the city.

However, the city, locked up by the enclosure of 1625, cannot grow at the same rate/rhythm. That raised the prices of the dwellings. Consequently one builds in all the recesses available, thus increasing insalubrity and accumulation. Despite everything, the most underprivileged population cannot aspire even to a poor wretch slum inside the enclosure and will be established with the outside. Miserable suburbs emerge to the south of the city, as those of Injurias and Peñuelas , and less underprivileged in north, the suburb of Chamberí .

War of Independence

October 27th 1807, Charles IV and Napoleon signs the Traité of Fontainebleau, which authorizes the passage of the French troops by the Spanish territory to join the Spanish troops and to invade the Portugal (country which had refused to apply the international blockade against the England). In February 1808, Napoleon, with the excuse that the blockade against England]] was not respected by all the Spanish ports, sends to a powerful army to the orders of his brother-in-law the general Murat. In margin of the treaty, French troops enter to Catalonia to occupy the places which they met with their passage. In this manner, in February and March 1808, cities like Barcelona and Pampelune remain under French domination.

While all that occurred, the March 17th 1808 took place the Soulèvement of Aranjuez, bit of which the crown prince, Ferdinand VII, draws aside his father of the throne and occupies his station. However, when Ferdinand VII goes back to Madrid, the city is already occupied by Murat; in fact as much the king who his father are virtually captive of the French Army. Napoleon, benefitting from the weakness of the Spanish Bourbons, obliges them both, initially the father then the son, to join it with Bayonne. Ferdinand VII arrives at Bayonne on April 20th.

In the absence of kings, the situation is done tended more and more in the capital. The May 2nd, crowd starts to flow in front of the Palais Royal. She sees how the French soldiers make leave the palate the family members royal who were there still. When French forces infant it Francisco of Paula to be left, the multitude launches out to the attack of fit with body with the cry of ¡ That our lo llevan! ( They removes it to us ). The French soldiers shoot at crowd. The fight will last during hours and will extend to any Madrid. The Spanish soldiers, victims of ambient institutional confusion, remain passive in their barracks. Only the Artillery park located in the Palate of Monteleón takes finally the weapons against French, under the direction of the captains Luis Daoíz there Torres and Pedro Velarde Santillán. After having pushed back a first French offensive ordered by the Lefranc general, they die while fighting heroically against the reinforcements sent by Murat. Little by little, the hearths of resistance fall. Hundreds of Spanish, men and women, and French soldiers die in this confrontation. The table of Goya '' Carga of los Mamelucos '' reflects the fight of street which took place there this day.

Repression is cruel. In Salón del Prado and the fields of Moncloa, one shoots per hundreds of the patriots, pursuant to the decree of Murat against any Spanish who carries weapons . Table El Very of Mayo of 1808 in Madrid: los fusilamientos in the montaña del Príncipe Pío , of Goya, illustrates the repression which put an end to popular rising Dos of Mayo .

For this time in Bayonne, Napoleon maintains isolated the Royale family members. May 6th, 1808, Ferdinand VII having undergone death threats, returns the crown to his/her father. This one before, had yielded it to Napoleon who had allotted it to his older brother, Joseph Bonaparte. They are the Abdications of Bayonne . July 7th, Joseph is crowned, lends oath in front of the Cortes joined together to Bayonne and becomes Joseph I. Joseph puts himself then in way towards Madrid, where it arrives the 20. Hardly ten days later, it gives up the city, after the French rout in the Bataille of Bailén.

However, after the Spanish rout with the battle of Somosierra (November 30th, 1808), the French troops enter Madrid again.

Joseph I Bonaparte (1808-1813) tries to apply a program reformist, with the assistance of those which one calls Afrancesado S. In this spirit there, it orders the destruction of convents and churches in the zones saturated with Madrid to transform them into places and public highways (for that the people of Madrid called it the King of the Public gardens ). Thus were born the places from Santa Anna , tired the Cortes , Mostenses , San Martín or Ramales , replacing the sites of the destroyed convents. However, the most ambitious project was the creation of large places beside the Eastern frontage of the Palais Royal, at the price of the destruction of a great number of houses and some other buildings ( Casa del Tesoro and Couvent of San Gil ). Today, we know it under the name of Place of the East. Joseph Bonaparte will not see the end of this project, which one will continue in 1817 pennies the reign of Ferdinand VII. The creation of the first cemeteries apart from the city is also due to Joseph Bonaparte (General Cemeteries of the North of South). There were not any more burials in the churches and the convents.

The release of the city will show the destruction of invaluable units, like the Palate of the Buen Retiro . Of old palate, only remain only the Salón de Reinos (current Musée of the army) and the Salón of Baille (current Casón del Buen Retiro ).

XIXe century and Restoration

The Guerre of independence led to a new country, in spite of the last absolutist sudden starts of the reign of Ferdinand VII, with a liberal character and middle-class, opened with the influences come from the remainder of the Europe. Madrid, the capital of Spain, undergoes like any other city the transformations pulled by this opening. It fills of theaters, coffees and newspapers. It is romantic Madrid , frequently faded by revolutionary pushes and Pronunciamiento S (such as for example, the Pronunciamiento de Vicálvaro of 1854 of the general O'Donnell, which marked the beginning of the bienio progresista ).

But they are not only the coffees and theaters which will change the aspect of the city. In 1836 creates for itself the Universidad Central , born from the final transfer of old the Université of Alcalá in the capital. In 1850 is inaugurated the palate of the the Cortes, current Congreso of los Diputados and the February 9th 1851 the Railroad Madrid-Aranjuez, the second way of the peninsula. About 1858 the water provision of the capital is rationalized, by the construction of the Canal of Isabel II, which brings the water of Lozoya to Madrid.

With regard to the layout of the city, Madrid did not undergo a significant transformation until the medium of the XIXe century, time during which convents were demolished and were open new streets and places, following the Vente of the monastic goods of Mendizábal (1834-1855). The first significant increase in city occurred towards 1860, when the middle-class obtains the demolition of the enclosure of Philippe IV, thanks to the plan Castro and the realization of the new districts. Starting from the restoration of Alphonse XII, the city will acquire another character, reflected in the novels and writings of Pérez Galdós and Pío Baroja. Madrid exceeds the 400.000 inhabitants then. Consequence of the expansion of the city, one starts to create the first public means of transport. In 1871 the first lines of Tramway are open, which link the Puerta del Sol with the districts further away from the center.

At the beginning of the XXe century, Madrid preserves more the characteristics of an old city than those of a modern city. During the first third of the XXe century, the population inhabitant of Madrid practically doubles and ends up exceeding the 950.000 inhabitants. The need for infrastructures which this growth imposes, involved absorption, according to the radial transportation routes, of cores of population, hitherto separated from Madrid: towards south-west the Carabanchel S (Viola and Bajo); towards north, Chamartín of Rosa, by the road of Valence, Vallecas; by the road of the Aragon, Vicálvaro and Canillejas and by the road of Burgos, Fuencarral. New suburbs as mow Were windy, Tetuán or el Carmen accommodate the proletariat lately arrived, while in the new districts the middle-class inhabitant of Madrid settles.

The beginning of the century is one time of development of anarchistic terrorism . The May 31st 1906 Alphonse XIII contracts marriage with Victoria Eugenia de Battenberg. When the procession is prepared to leave in the Mayor hold, since number 88, the anarchist Mateo Morral lance a bomb camouflaged in a bouquet of flower. The royal couple is unscathed but the explosion causes a massacre around fits with body. In 1912, the anarchist Manuel Pardiñas assassinates the president of the government, Jose Canalejas, of three shots in front of the bookstore San Martín, into full Puerta del Sol.

The Twenties were years of prosperity, which result in the opening of the Gran Vía, with an aim of relieving congestion the old center or the modern project of Urbanisme of Arturo Soria in the Ciudad Lineal and by the extension of the subway, whose first line (Caminos Ground-Cuatro) had been inaugurated in 1919.

The Second Republic and the Civil war

Pro-Franco Dictatorship

During the Forties and Fifties, Madrid absorbed thirteen communes bordering (in 1947, Chamartín of Rosa; in 1948, Carabanchel Viola and Carabanchel Bajo; in 1949, Barajas of Madrid, Hortaleza, Canillas, Canillejas and Aravaca; in 1950, Vicálvaro, Fuencarral, Vallecas and El Pardo; in 1954, Villaverde), making pass its surface of 66 km ² to 607 km ². The Plane of Ordenación del Área Metropolitana , approved in 1963, mark the beginning of the tendency to deviate the concentration of population of Madrid towards metropolitan communes like Alcobendas, Alcorcón, Coslada, Fuenlabrada, Getafe, Leganés, Móstoles, San Sebastián of los Reyes and San Fernando de Henares.

The Democracy

The Attentat S which touched Madrid Thursday March 11th, 2004 constitute a series of murder attempts condemned by the international community as being an act of Terrorisme. Several explosions of bombs, posed by islamist Morrocans, occurred in cercanías (suburban trains) with Madrid (Spain) the morning of the March 11th 2004.

Internal bonds

Attacks of March 11th, 2004 in Madrid

External bonds

History of Madrid

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