|  One
of the entrances into the Plaza Mayor (1690) is up the steps
through the Arco de Cuchilleros. The Plaza Mayor as a fixed
architectural or town-planning element became standard in
Spanish cities during the Hapsburg age and the one in Madrid
is probably the most representative (though the most architecturally
perfect plaza mayor is supposed to be in Salamanca). Madrid's
Plaza Mayor is a closed public space which is actually enormous
without seeming to be. It is a trick of proportion, improved
when the square was completely rebuilt in 1790 after a fire.
On the south side, where we have just entered, street artists
ply the same trade they do everywhere, drawing caricatures
and selling pictures of dubious artistic merit. We follow
the colonnades round, past the Tourist Information Office,
installed in the Casa de la Carnicería, Butcher's.
Reaching the east side, we find the first of the two or three
traditional milliners' shops
in the square. These photographs were taken in March, still
too early in the year for the bars and restaurants to lay
out their terraces, the tables and chairs which they arrange
greedily to occupy as much of the square as they can and at
which the tourist is advised to be cautious – prices here
can undergo sudden inflation when American accents or Japanese
features are noticed. Buskers are to be seen, a relatively
new phenomenon in Spain, where artists have traditionally
been appreciated and musicians despised. As in other European
cities, many have taken to performing pop classical pieces
in groups of four or five or with the aid of a backing tape.
If you come here, you might like to remember the feelings
of the neighbours before you give money. As one said recently
in the newspaper, "Imagine what it is like to hear the
Concierto
de Aranjuez twenty times running, every day, or until
two or three o'clock in the morning."
At the centre of the Plaza Mayor is an equestrian statue
of Philip III. 
This was placed here in 1616, controversially, because the
square has always been used for public occasions and it was
rightly thought that the statue broke up the space. This highlights
the public nature of the square. It has been used for plays,
fireworks, royal marriage celebrations, bullfights and, most
sinisterly, autos-da-fé.
These days, visitors looking at the ornately decorated
Casa de la Panadería,
built on the site of a bakery which gave it its name, are
still likely to find their view obstructed by a stage put
up for the festival of the moment – carnival, the fiestas
of
San Isidro, a summer festival, an autumn festival… On
Sundays, the square is used for a coin and stamp market and
there are often other celebrations, such as a free, enormous
cocido
madrileño, chick-pea stew, a local favourite.
We leave the Plaza Mayor from its north-west corner, passing
the San Miguel covered market on our left. A little down the
traffic-saturated Calle Mayor, on the left, the Plaza de la
Villa 
is an oasis of peace. After the admittedly elegant uniformity
of the Plaza Mayor, the Plaza de la Villa has a nice, asymmetrical
look about it. It is three-sided, being open to the Calle
Mayor. The main building in the square, the Casa de la
Villa or Ayuntamiento, City Hall, is a delight.
In the same, elegant, seventeenth-century style as the Cárcel
de Corte, it is less imposing to look at, in spite of
its three towers. I think this is simply because it is much
lower, with only three storeys, including the attic, so that
it does not loom over the square. The Casa de la Villa
is open, free, to visitors on Fridays or Saturday mornings,
I am not exactly sure, this being one of those things I have
been meaning to do for years.
The buildings facing the Casa de la Villa, including
the Lujanes House and Tower, are actually older than
the Hapsburg period and, although fully worthy of note, I
shall skip them here. On the south side of the square, at
the opposite end to the Calle Mayor, stands the  Casa
or Palacio de Cisneros, which is an appealing,
plateresque
building, which looks as if it should be draped with ivy.
The Cisneros in question was not actually the powerful cardinal
of that name (as some careless guide-books tell you), but
his evidently prosperous nephew. It is now joined to the Casa
de la Villa by a sort of overhead gallery and is used
for municipal business.
You can leave the Plaza de la Villa by one of the exits on
the south side or through the delightfully narrow, mediaeval
Calle del Codo (Elbow Street). We headed down to the Calle
Sacramento, then turned right and up, back towards the Calle
Mayor. The Sacramento Church on the corner is interesting,
apart from its architectural worth. The splendid
Palacio Uceda, Palace of the Duke of Uceda, now a military
headquarters, the Capitanía General, stands next door
and the church has taken on the functions of a chapel.
Step forward from here a few yards and you come to the Calle
Bailén, nearly opposite the spanking new
Catedral de la Almudena to the north. Past it, you can
see the
royal palace, built on the site of the former alcázar,
destroyed by fire in 1734. Looking the other way, soaring
over the Calle Segovia is the viaduct, the sides of which
are clad in plexiglass to prevent very messy suicide attempts,
and beyond which you can see the trees in the Jardines
de las Vistillas. This is another favourite spot for Madrid-dwellers
during fiestas and festivals, especially those of Madrid's
patron saint,
Saint Isidore the farmer, which run for about ten days
either side of May 15th.
This is the edge of the Madrid de los Austrias and
where this visit ends. I have marked a longer route on the
map for those
who want to take in the magnificent equestrian statue of Philip
IV in the Plaza del Oriente, the Convento de la Encarnación
and the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales, all of
which deserve attention. We shall look at them properly another
day.
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