Madrid
Madrid is the capital and most populous city of Spain. It had a population of over 3.4 million in the city proper in 2025, and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.8 million. Madrid is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), after Berlin, and its metropolitan area is the second-largest in the EU, after Paris.
Typical weather
1981–presentCity Rhythm
measuredOpening hours, by kind of place
median across mapped venuesVital absurdities
measured · the Anti-AwardsSame time system
by rhythmWhat to do each season
2winter
cool, mostly sunny, dry; mean 3.5-15.4 °C across the range; January mean min −0.4 °C, frosts frequent especially at night and mornings; sporadic snowfalls; cold winds from the Guadarrama
- indoor cultural season at full strength: the Prado (2.8M visitors), the Reina Sofía (3.8M), the Thyssen — the Paseo del Arte triangle
- Madrid's night-economy continues year-round but winter deepens the café-and-tasca layer
- the Madrid Central low-emission zone continues; air quality improves in winter
- Christmas season at Plaza Mayor, the Three Kings parade (5 January)
summer
hot and very dry; mean 19.7-25.1 °C, July mean max 33.2 °C; precipitation 0.4-0.5 mm/day in Jul-Aug — essentially rainless; daily peaks regularly over 35 °C, occasionally >40 °C
- Madrid's nightlife peaks — nightclubs liven up by 1:30 am and stay open until at least 6 am (the defining civic affordance)
- the city's tapas economy (Santa Ana, Malasaña, La Latina) is at full strength; terraces fill late afternoon as the heat recedes
- the Sierra de Guadarrama (60 km north) becomes the city's summer-escape valve — cooler at altitude
- San Isidro (mid-May) and the Veranos de la Villa (summer festival) activate outdoor public space
What it is known for
Important moments in a year
San Isidro
- Madrid's patron-saint festival
- concerts, fairs, bullfighting season at Las Ventas
- citywide street life
Orgullo Gay Pride
- Madrid Pride (Orgullo) — one of Europe's largest Pride festivals
- parade through the centre
La Paloma
- Fiestas de la Paloma in La Latina — the most popular of Madrid's verbenas (street festivals)
Three Kings
- Three Kings parade (Cabalgata de Reyes) through the centre
Arco Madrid
- international contemporary art fair — IFEMA
On the record
source-trackedMadrid is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), after Berlin, and its metropolitan area is the second-largest in the EU, after Paris.
Madrid lies on the River Manzanares in the central part of the Iberian Peninsula at about 660 metres above mean sea level.
Madrid has a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk), transitioning to a Mediterranean climate (Csa) in the western half. Madrid's climate has continental influences.
In 2018, Madrid banned all non-resident vehicles from its downtown areas.
Madrid is an international hub of highly active and diverse nightlife with bars, dance bars and nightclubs staying open well past midnight.
Most nightclubs liven up by 1:30 a.m. and stay open until at least 6 a.m.
Nightlife flourished in the 1980s while Madrid's mayor Enrique Tierno Galván was in office, nurturing the cultural-musical movement known as La Movida.
The area of Chueca has also become a hot spot in the Madrilenian nightlife, especially for the gay population. Chueca is known as gay quarter, comparable to the Castro District in San Francisco.
The most visited museum was the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, with 3.8 million visitors in 2018. Conversely, the Prado Museum had 2.8 million visitors and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum 906,815 visitors.
In the Sol neighbourhood (part of the Centro District), 3 out of 10 homes are dedicated to tourist apartments.
The Puerta del Sol square is Madrid's centre of the centre and therefore the symbolic omphalos of the whole kingdom. Here is milestone zero of Spain's road network from which all distances are measured.
The Monte de El Pardo, a protected forested area covering over a quarter of the municipality, reaches its top altitude (843 m) on its perimeter.
The method behind this atlas — 196 pp. Not published yet.