Javier Perez Montes · CC BY-SA 4.0
Gran Vía at night
Madrid's one piece of genuine spectacle, best at the hour the signs come on.
Gran Vía was cut through the old city between 1910 and 1929 and it still looks like what it was meant to be: an argument that Madrid was a modern capital. The buildings are enormous, theatrical, and lit from below, and the whole street is a continuous crowd from early evening onwards.
Walk it from Plaza de España down to Alcalá at about nine. It is the only part of this city that behaves like a postcard, and it is more fun than that makes it sound.
Before you go
- Best time
- Just after dark, walking west to east
- December
- The Christmas lights make it busier than it looks possible for a street to be
- Metro
- Plaza de España, Callao or Gran Vía
Published · updated · details checked
Researched from published sources rather than a personal visit. Check before you go.
Where it is
In these guides
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