23- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
ii. Madrid
Madrid, name not only to the city but also the small
region in which it sits, is bang in the middle of Spain,
sitting high on themesetawith its seasonal blasts of
fire and ice.The city’s development as national capital
was anything but organic – King Felipe II chose what
was a small, undeveloped town as home to his court in- Eventually, Madrid’s infrastructure caught up with
its administrative might and by the 20thcentury it was
sucking people en masse from the surrounding lands.
The city isn’t renowned for its architecture, although
the remnants of its 17thcentury centre are endearing
enough, but the verve of Madrid’s cultural life more
than compensates. Residents are spoiled with three
international art galleries, including the mighty Museo
del Prado where they can ponder work by Caravaggio,
Rembrandt and Velázquez.That most significant of
20 thcentury paintings, Picasso’sGuernica(1937),
hangs in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina
Sofía.The remnants of Habsburg and Bourbon power,
from the lived-in Plaza Mayor to the frighteningly grand
Palacio Real, are also compulsory viewing for the
tourist. However, it’s the noisy natives, the Madrileños,
who generate the city’s real magnetism.They love their
bars, clubs and late nights – on average people here
get 40 minutes less sleep than in the rest of Europe.
The wilder side of the city life that emerged after
Franco’s death in 1975 was labelledLa Movida
Madrileña, characterised by liberal attitudes to drink,
drugs and sex. Pedro Almodóvar’s early films, in
particularPepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón
(1980), captured the mood.
The Madrileños
are known for being
gregarious. Visitors
often suggest they’re
easier to befriend than
people in the rest of
Spain, although the
Catalans, Basques et al
will no doubt refer said
visitors to the brashness
of their capital’s
residents.Writers’ block
Las Letras, an area of
central Madrid, derives
its name from the
playwrights who hung
out there four hundred
years ago, Cervantes
and Lope de Vega
among them. Later, the
city became famous
for itstertulias, literary
salons held in homes,
clubs and cafés. The city
nurtured the rarefied
literary atmosphere in
its many cafés in the
early 20thcentury:
Café Gijón is usually
seen as the sole survivor
of this flowering. Ernest
Hemingway, who first
visited Madrid in 1923,
found himself more
attracted to the city’s
bars. During the Civil
War he supped at
Chicote, a cocktail bar
that earned his respect
by remaining open
throughout the worst
moments of Madrid’s
lengthy siege. Today
Chicote is a chic pillar of
the city’s social scenery.