10/11/2015
Sandeman’s offers free walking tours every day at the Plaza
Mayor rain or shine. They are based on tips, so you pay how much you think it’s
worth. The tour ran around 2.5 hours long, starting at the Plaza Mayor and
ending at the Royal Palace of Madrid, which is perfect, considering that we
wanted to go into the Royal Palace this afternoon anyway.
In the middle of Plaza Mayor is a statue of Philip III on
horseback in a triumphant, warrior-like pose. More on this later...
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| Plaza Mayor |
We always thought Plaza Mayor was the major plaza in Madrid
because it’s so much like other plazas in European cities. Sebastian, our tour
guide, said that is not the case. This plaza is the most touristy now, but in
medieval times, the Plaza Mayor was the main market for meat, bread, and
everyday necessities. It was also outside the city walls. Why? Because the
vendors didn’t want to pay taxes. If you set up a stall within the city walls,
you’d have to pay taxes. So they set up shop right outside the city walls, and
this is where everyone went to get their groceries. The plaza was also where
theater was performed. Most people in the medieval ages were illiterate, so
theater was their main form of entertainment because they couldn’t read or
write. The plaza was also where heretics were garroted, the main form of
execution in Spain. Beheading was reserved for the privileged because it was
considered a fast form of death. With the garrote, the executioner can drag out
the execution excruciating long because it’s basically a string that tightens
around the person’s throat, and you can adjust the speed to which it tightens. The
last person to be garroted in the plaza actually happened relatively
recently—in 1974. Heretics were also burned at the stake in this plaza. Many of
those sentenced to die would request green timber because it burned more
slowly; they would die from smoke inhalation before the fire ever reached their
feet, so it’s a less painful way to die.
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| Plaque in Plaza Mayor denoting all the activities that had occurred here...including garroting |
A little ways away from the Plaza Mayor is the Plaza de
Puerta Cerrada, or plaza of the Closed Gate. The village of Madrid (it was not
a city back then) was walled off, with the wealthy folks living inside the city
gates. In order to do business but avoid the entry fee into the city, people
would climb the walls and jump over. These people became known as “El Gatos,”
or “the cats.” It used to be a derisive term because Madrid was poor. But
nowadays, it’s said with pride because not a lot of people in the city now can
trace their lineage back three generations of Madrilenos. Most have only been
here a generation or two, having migrated here for work. But don’t say “I’m an
el gato” with pride in Argentina. The connotative meaning in Argentinian for el
gato is “slut.”
Another legend says that during the 11th century,
the village of Madrid was under Muslim rule. The troops of the Christian King
Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile (Leon and Castile are in northern Spain, so they
were enemies descending on Madrid from the north…when the fortress was designed
to protect from southern invaders) approached the gate. One of the soldiers
climbed the wall by inserting his dagger into the grooves of the wall, and then
let Alfonso’s army in from the inside. He did so with the agility of a cat, so
his fellow soldiers called him “el gato.” He was proclaimed a hero.
The restaurant below is billed as the oldest continually running
restaurant in the world (even has the Guinness title! see above). There are probably taverns in Germany or England older
than this, but they don’t have the documentation to prove it. In this
restaurant, displaced Frenchmen running away from the French Revolution would
discuss their ideological and political beliefs, discussing revolutionary ideas
(for that time), including freedom of speech, separating church from state—all considered
treasonous concepts at the time. A young dishwasher listened to the Frenchmen
talk, and was inspired by this so much, he sparked a whole liberal movement in
the arts. His name was Goya.
The restaurant is called “de Botin,” though that was not the
original restaurant owner’s name. But the Spaniards couldn’t pronounce his real
name, which was “de Bourbon.” He too was a displaced Frenchman running from the
Revolution.
Calle del codo is so named because it’s in the shape of an
elbow, or “codo.” There’s a convent on this street that is several hundred
years old. Generations of Madrilenos come to this convent to buy the nuns’
cookies. In Spain, nuns practically invented all the sweets. They only sell on
Mondays, and have their hours posted outside (they too have an afternoon
siesta). You go in to a small antechamber where you call out your order. Behind
a wall (you can’t see the nuns), a nun will tell you how much the total is, and
you put the money on a vertical turnstile of sorts. Behind the wall, the nuns
will package up your order in a box, dole out the appropriate change, and turn
the turnstile back to you. A blogger wrote about this rather unique experience
a couple years back and the blogosphere exploded.
So it’s turned into a popular tourist attraction and the instructions are now also written in English!
Sebastian took us to the Plaza de la Villa, which is the old
city hall of Madrid up until 2008. There are three buildings flanking this
square. One from the 15th century, built for a wealthy Christian
businessman. The architecture looks a bit Moorish, for no other reason than the
best engineers, architects and construction workers in the city were Muslim
(like Seville!). And for the quality of work, they were the cheapest laborers.
So naturally, the Christian businessman wants to save some money while getting
the best craftsmanship possible—kind of like when we remodel!
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| Plaza de la Villa 15th century building |
The building next to it is 16th century:
And the one next to that is 17th century. The old city hall was housed in the 17th century building, which is Hapsburg in design with its steep sloping rooftops. You usually only find these kind of rooftops in places that snow, for practical reasons. But because the Austrian Hapsburgs were in power, their architectural style became popular in Spain.
In 2008, however, Madrid’s mayor decided he wanted a grander
city hall for himself…right in the middle of a global recession. If you recall,
Spain was hit particularly hard. But the mayor—and the politicians that
approved this excess waste of funds—went ahead and built himself the Plaza de
Cibeles for 500 million euros! While his people were being booted out of their
homes, his new office was a whole lot bigger than most people’s apartments. No
wonder their party lost the last election.
It’s sad because we’d just gone there the other day, and we
all thought it was a gorgeous building. We were under the impression it was of
historical significance, however. Had we known it’s less than a decade old, and
the controversy behind it, we wouldn’t have wasted our time with it.
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| Plaza de la Villa 17th century old City Hall |
Plaza de la Cruz Verde (the plaza of the green cross) was the next stop. Nowadays, several famous Spanish actresses live in this district, and the green cross is no more. Back in the medieval ages, however, there was a huge green cross in this square. This cross was a symbol of the Spanish Inquisition. Jews, Muslims and Christians lived in harmony for a century before Ferdinand and Isabella united their kingdoms and began the Spanish Inquisition, booting out the Jews and Muslims. In the Plaza de la Cruz Verde, heretics, Jews, gays were tarred and feathered. Even now, the Spanish term for “to feather” connotatively means “faggot.” Nowadays, as a conciliatory gesture, if you can prove your great-grandfather was a Jewish Spaniard, they will grant you automatic EU citizenship. Probably because the EU needs money.
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| Plaza de la Cruz Verde |
Madrid was built on top of a hill by Emir Mohammed I as a Muslim fortress. On the site of what is now the Alcazar (pronounced “al-Ca-tha”), the Muslims built the fortress facing south to guard against the Romans. But the Romans never attacked their fortress; merely passed through the surrounding countryside. Instead, the Christians attacked from the north and took the fortress as their own, leading to the Spanish occupation of the region.
By this time, we’re almost at the Alcazar. Across from it is
a cathedral…constructed in the 1990s. There were plans to construct a cathedral
here from way back in the 1500s, but because the bishops in Toledo opposed the
building of such a cathedral, the plans were delayed by four hundred years. In
Spain, apparently a village cannot be called a city until it has a proper
cathedral. So Madrid has always been a village until the 1990s.
Historically, Toledo was the seat of power for the Catholic
bishops, second in significance to Christendom only behind Rome. Because of
this, Toledo resisted Madrid’s bid to build a cathedral because it would dilute
their power.
Historically, Seville was much wealthier than Madrid. Just
go to Seville and take a look around! The historical buildings there are
gorgeous! Madrid is more humdrum because it did not gain its importance in
Spanish history until much later. Spain never had a capital until Philip II.
The capital was always considered to be where the current king decided to
reside. He would travel up and down Spain, dragging his court along from one
city to the next. So the capital of Spain was always moving.
It wasn’t until Philip II’s reign that he decided to set
down roots in Madrid and make Madrid the permanent capital of Spain. His
courtiers tried to persuade him to make Lisbon the capital because it was a
more strategic move, but Philip wouldn’t listen. He loved Castile and the
surrounding lands. Had he made Lisbon the capital, perhaps Portugal and Spain
would be united still. And had he begot a son on Mary Tudor before she died,
England’s official tongue would be Spanish. So many ifs!
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| Cathedral |
We stood by the garden next to the Alcazar while Sebastian gave us a brief—and very entertaining—rundown of the Spanish monarchs, using us tourists as the characters. I believe Dad was Philip II.
Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile’s marriage united Spain and Portugal. They started the Spanish Inquisition to drive out Jews and Muslims (the French were the first to enact the concept of Inquisition, though theirs was the Roman Catholics against other forms of Christianity), funded Christopher Columbus’s 1492 voyage (October 12—tomorrow—is Spain’s National Day where you can get into most museums for free. It’s to commemorate the day Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas, Spain’s “discovery” of the continent…discounting the fact that Native Americans lived there long before their “discovery”).
The couple had several children, and Ferdinand promptly set out to marry them off to make alliances with other European powerhouses. His bitter enemy was France, so he sought to marry off his children advantageously to boost his power against France. The most historically important marriages were three of their daughters, as their son and heir did not live to adulthood:
Joanna the Mad, married to Philip the Handsome of Flanders. Portraits of Philip do not show that he was particularly handsome, though he had mucho mula, so I guess it makes sense people thought he was handsome. That’s true even nowadays, isn’t it? He was a serial philanderer, so perhaps Joanna wasn’t mad as courtiers claimed she was. She was probably just throwing fits of jealousy. Nevertheless, Philip used this excuse to throw her in prison and rule in her place. This made Ferdinand very unhappy because he didn’t want some kid from Flanders usurping his throne. However, his son had died so he had no heir. He would bicker with his son-in-law for power until the day Philip died. Joanna and Philip’s union would produce Charles V, who inherited Spain and Portugal on his mother’s side, and the entire Hapsburg empire on his father’s. Charles V became the Holy Roman Emperor and united his Dutch territories with Spain and Portugal, creating the most powerful empire in Europe.
Catherine of Aragon, married to—you guessed it—Henry VIII of England. He spent years trying to divorce her for Anne Boleyn.
Maria of Aragon, married off to a Portuguese king. Their union produced Isabella of Portugal, who is obviously first cousins with Charles V because their mothers are sisters. Isabella and Charles would marry to produce Philip II, the much-beloved king of Spain.
Each generation from here on out were unions of Hapsburg inbreeding. Philip II married his niece to produce his heir, Philip III. Philip III married his cousin to produce Philip IV and a daughter named Anne of Austria. She married King Louis XIII of France, became Queen of France and produced Louis XIV. More on him later.
Philip IV married his niece to produce his heir, Charles II. Philip IV was also responsible for Spain’s loss of Portugal and the Netherlands. The Dutch had been in revolt since Philip III’s time because they were taxed more heavily than their Spanish counterparts, in part because the Dutch were wealthier than their Spanish counterparts. Under Philip IV, Spain declared bankruptcy, inflation soared, and he was also waging expensive wars at the same time. Since they lost Flanders, they stopped frequenting Dutch artists and craftsmen. Flanders is known for their intricate tapestry, but the king refused to buy from them anymore. Instead, he opened up a royal tapestry factory in Madrid, and promoted Spanish arts instead.
Charles II was the last Hapsburg ruler in Spain. Due to generations of inbreeding, he was mentally and physically incapable to rule, as well as infertile. He could barely eat because of his Hapsburg jaw, couldn’t speak until the age of four and couldn’t walk until the age of eight. He was so sickly, his ministers sought to rule in his place, thus an age of court intrigue began. The government married him off to a young, pretty woman in the hopes of siring the next generation of Hapsburgs, but she died under mysterious circumstances (some say Charles’s mother, the regent, poisoned her). The government then married him off to his second wife, who was under so much pressure to produce a male heir, she faked a pregnancy. It wasn’t until Charles’s sudden death and many months of people wondering when she would give birth that she finally broke down and confessed she was faking it.
When Charles II died with no heir, it triggered the Spanish War of Succession which would last 14 years. Every European country wanted to get in on the action, to have a say on who would inherit Spain. Seeing an opening, England jumped in and claimed Gibraltar, to which Spain and the UK are still fighting about to this day.
The one to finally emerge victorious to the Spanish crown was Louis XIV of Bourbon…from France. Had Ferdinand known that marrying his daughters off as he did would eventually lead to a Frenchman on his throne, he would’ve had a heart attack. King Louis XIV is also the grandson of Philip III because his mother is Anne of Austria. He is better known in France as The Sun King, the one who commissioned Versailles. See? It comes whole circle! The Alcazar in Madrid looks pretty much like Versailles!
His Hapsburg ancestors had been ruling since the thirteenth century, so they saw no need to make that much of a fuss in terms of glorification and monuments. Louis XIV, however, was considered a third-generation king (always from the father’s side), so he sought very flamboyant ways to show off his power. It’s like new money vs. old.
Whew. That’s a whole of genealogy, isn’t it? But it all circles back around to irony at its best. Ferdinand’s worst enemy was the French, yet a Frenchman ultimately ends up with his throne. To this day, the monarchs of Spain are Bourbons.
In the garden just outside the Alcazar is a statue of Philip IV on horseback with the horse’s front legs raised in midair. This statue is significant because it was one of the first times artists were able to sculpt such a heavy piece of marble with half of the statue in midair; Galileo was consulted in the engineering phases for this statue. They didn’t condemn him of heresy for the very practical reason of: they needed his brainpower.
Alcazar was burned to a crisp in the 1700s, which was just
fine by the king ruling at the time, King Louis de Bourbon…of France. The
previous Alcazar had been built in the Hapsburg style because the ruling family
was Austrian. Since the whole palace burned down, conveniently enough for
Louis, he got to rebuild the palace however he wished. He built it in the
French fashion. Indeed, it looks much like Versailles. It’s a whole lot bigger
than Versailles, and makes the Buckingham Palace look puny in comparison. But
because there hasn’t been a royal family in residence here since the early
1900s, the cultural significance of this building has languished behind
Buckingham.
During the Spanish Civil War, General Franco sent the king abroad to safety while he fought against the newly formed republic. He won the war with help from fascists regimes like the Nazis. The king promptly called Franco to ask when he could return to Spain. To which Franco said, “mañana,” and hung up on the king. Franco would rule as a dictator for the next few decades. Toward the end of his life, he was looking for a successor to his rule and he sought out the descendants of the king (the very king he’d betrayed) to bring them back to power. The new “king” was a puppet to Franco until Franco’s death. Thus why Spain has a king and queen today, though a lot of Spaniards refuse to acknowledge them.
After the tour, we went into the Alcazar. They don’t allow
photography, which is a bummer because it’s so gorgeous inside! The
audioguide’s rather dry and gives a rundown on who painted what (there’s a lot
of paintings) instead of an in-depth history of the place. I almost fell asleep
listening to it. Angel, Mom and Dad all didn’t want the audioguide, so they had
to wait for me as I listened to the whole long thing.
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| Madrid Alcazar |
The crest of the Spanish royal family has fleur de lys in the middle, to denote their French lineage:
The most amusing fact from the audioguide:
The alcazar is very richly furnished. Since Versailles was
pretty much looted (so most of the furniture you see today is a recreation), if
you want a real example of beautifully preserved royal furnishings, go to the
Royal Palace of Madrid.
The velvet damask wallpaper in one room is so richly royal blue and not faded at all, you’d think it was made yesterday, not several hundred years ago! There’s a room where the walls—the walls—are covered with porcelain figurines. As in, it’s glued onto the walls in a crisscross pattern. It really testifies to the wealth of the Spanish monarchy back in the day.
There’s the royal armory which houses a lot of Philip II and his father’s armors. From their armors, you can see that they weren’t that tall. Too much inbreeding!
We went to a hot chocolate shop afterwards because it was a cold day (it'd started to rain just as we went inside the Alcazar, though had already stopped when we came out). That, and I can't resist a deal! There was a coupon in the tourist map for buy 1 hot chocolate, get 2 churros free.
The chocolate wasn't as thick as San Gines, but the taste was delicious. It was almost like they added caramel to the hot chocolate!
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| Muy Mucho store |
Side note: RyanAir allows you to check-in up to 7 days in advance. You
must print boarding passes before you get to airport (or show up with a mobile
app boarding pass) or you’ll be charged 15 euros per boarding pass. That’s
unfair; it’s basically discriminating against everyone who doesn’t have
smartphones! When you check-in, they’ll assign you random seats. Thankfully, if
you’re traveling in a group under one confirmation, they’ll try to seat you
together. The hotel reception was kind enough to print our boarding passes for
us, so we don’t have to stress about the fees. We were actually thinking of
having the laptop open and trying to get RyanAir to scan the bar codes from our
laptop!
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