Plaza de la Villa

You are in Plaza de la Villa, a quiet corner just off Calle Mayor. For more than three centuries Madrid was governed from here, and in a single glance you can take in four hundred years of architecture.

1Three buildings, three eras

The oldest building is the Torre de los Lujanes, from the 15th century, an example of the Gothic-Mudéjar style that belonged to a family of the Madrid nobility. Opposite it stands the Casa de la Villa, designed by Juan Gómez de Mora in the mid-17th century and completed at the end of that century, with towers crowned by the slate spires so characteristic of Habsburg Madrid. The ensemble is completed by the Casa de Cisneros, built in 1537 in the Plateresque style by Benito Jiménez de Cisneros, nephew of the cardinal who gives it its name.

2The town hall

The Casa de la Villa was the seat of the City Council until 2007, when the mayor’s office moved to the Palacio de Cibeles. Even so, the building continued to host the council’s plenary sessions for years. From Calle Mayor you can see the colonnaded gallery added by Juan de Villanueva in 1789.

According to tradition, King Francis I of France was held prisoner in the Torre de los Lujanes after the Battle of Pavia in 1525.

It is a story told again and again, but it is not confirmed by the records, so take it for what it is: a tradition.

3What to look out for

• The statue of Don Álvaro de Bazán, by Mariano Benlliure, unveiled in 1891.
• The Torre de los Lujanes, built of brick and still medieval in appearance.
• The spires of the Casa de la Villa, a hallmark of Madrid Baroque.