Madrid Atocha railway station

The 2004 Madrid train bombings (also known in Spain as 11M) were a series of coordinated, nearly simultaneous bombings against the Cercanías commuter train system of Madrid, Spain, on the morning of 11 March 2004—three days before Spain's general elections. The explosions killed 193 people and injured around 2,000. The bombings constituted the deadliest terrorist attack carried out in the history of Spain and the deadliest in Europe since 1988. The official investigation by the Spanish judiciary found that the attacks were directed by Al-Qaeda in Iraq, allegedly as a reaction to Spain's involvement in the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. Although they had no role in the planning or implementation, the Spanish miners who sold the explosives to the terrorists were also arrested.Controversy regarding the handling and representation of the bombings by the government arose, with Spain's two main political parties — Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and Partido Popular (PP) — accusing each other of concealing or distorting evidence for electoral reasons. The bombings occurred three days before general elections in which incumbent José María Aznar's PP was defeated. Immediately after the bombing, leaders of the PP claimed evidence indicating the Basque separatist organization ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) was responsible for the bombings, while the opposition claimed that the PP was trying to prevent the public from knowing it had been an islamist attack, which would be interpreted as the direct result of Spain's involvement in Iraq, an unpopular war which the government had entered without the approval of the Spanish Parliament.Following the attacks, there were nationwide demonstrations and protests demanding that the government "tell the truth". The prevailing opinion of political analysts is that the Aznar administration lost the general elections as a result of the handling and representation of the terrorist attacks, rather than because of the bombings per se. Results published in The Review of Economics and Statistics by economist Jose G. Montalvo seem to suggest that indeed the bombings had important electoral impact (turning the electoral outcome against the incumbent People's Party and handing government over to the Socialist Party, PSOE). After 21 months of investigation, judge Juan del Olmo tried Moroccan national Jamal Zougam, among several others, for his participation carrying out the attack. The September 2007 sentence established no known mastermind nor direct al-Qaeda link.

The Puerta de Atocha was a gate in the city walls of Madrid (known as the Walls of Philip IV). It owed its name to be located in the vicinity of the old hermitage, later Convento de Nuestra Señora de Atocha. It was demolished in 1850. Its location must exit to Paseo de las Delicias

The Atocha station memorial is a memorial monument located at Atocha station in Madrid, Spain, that commemorates the 191 victims of the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings. Furthermore, it also honors the special forces agent who died when seven suicide bombers blew themselves up on 3 April 2004 during a raid on an apartment used by the bombers. The 11 m (36 ft) tall cylinder stands above Atocha station, the destination of the four trains that were attacked. Texts composed of hundreds of expressions of grief sent in the days after the attack from all over the world are printed on a clear colourless membrane that is inflated by air pressure, rising balloon-like inside a cylinder. That structure is composed of glass blocks and sits on a platform or terrace overhead. The light in the empty blue room below comes from this source alone. At night the cylinder is illuminated by lamps within its base and can be seen throughout the station neighborhood. King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia and Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero attended a ceremony at the site on the third anniversary of the bombings, 11 March 2007. Wreaths were laid at the foot of the tower and mourners observed three minutes of silence.

The National Museum of Anthropology (Spanish: Museo Nacional de Antropología) is a national museum of Spain, located in Madrid near the Parque del Buen Retiro and opposite Atocha railway and metro station. It is considered the oldest anthropology museum in Spain, formally inaugurated on April 29, 1875, during the reign of Alfonso XII.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Spanish: Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación, MAPA), is the department of the Government of Spain responsible for proposing and carrying out the government policy on agricultural, livestock and fishery resources, food industry, rural development and human food. The Ministry is responsible for assigning Veterinary Surgeons to carry out checks in regard to the issuing of REGA Licences (Registro de Explotación) a requirement for the ownership of horses on Spanish property and small holdings. Specifically, it corresponds to the MAPA the preparation of State legislation on agriculture, fisheries and food; the proposal and carrying out of the general guidelines of the Government on agricultural, fisheries and food policies; the representation of Spain in the international organizations corresponding to these matters; as well as the coordination of actions, cooperation and agreement in the design and application of all policies that affect the scope of competences of the autonomous communities and the other public administrations, encouraging their participation through the cooperation bodies and instruments adequate.Unlike most ministries, this one has not any Secretariat of State and it works through three bodies with the rank of Undersecretariat: the General Secretariat for Agriculture and Food, the General Secretariat for Fisheries and the Undersecretariat of the Ministry. The head of the Department is the Minister of Agriculture, currently Mr. Luis Planas.

The Palace of Fomento (Spanish: Palacio de Fomento), also known as the Ministry of Agriculture Building, is a nineteenth-century office building in Madrid, Spain. Designed by Ricardo Velázquez Bosco, and built between 1893 and 1897, it is on a prominent site opposite Atocha railway station.

The Royal Observatory of Madrid is a historic observatory situated on a small hill next to the Buen Retiro Park in Madrid, Spain. It was completed in 1790 and took over some of the work previously done by the naval observatory on the south coast. It is the seat of the Spanish National Astronomical Observatory and the Observatorio Geofísico Central, both administered by the National Geographic Institute (via its department of Astronomía, Geofísica y Aplicaciones Espaciales).

The Spanish National Observatory (Spanish: Observatorio Astronómico Nacional de España, OAN) is an astronomical observatory with several facilities in the Madrid area. The Observatory has published a yearbook (the Anuario del Observatorio Astronómico de Madrid) since the 19th century.

Plaza del Emperador Carlos V (Emperor Charles V square) is a square in the city of Madrid. It is named after Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, who also reigned in Spain as Charles I. However, it is referred to as Plaza de Atocha, because it is where Madrid Atocha railway station is located.

The Monument to Claudio Moyano is an instance of public art in Madrid, Spain. Designed by Agustín Querol and located at the Plaza del Emperador Carlos V, it consists of a bronze statue of Claudio Moyano, a 19th century statesman noted for the authorship of the 1857 Law of Education, put on top of a tall stone pedestal.

Estación del Arte (formerly Atocha) is a station on Line 1 of the Madrid Metro and is located in Fare Zone A. It was opened to the public on 26 December 1926. The station is located beneath Charles V plaza, less than 500 meters from the Madrid Atocha railway station which serves commuter and long-distance trains. It is the nearest Metro station to the Paseo del Prado. It is located between the neighborhoods of Embajadores (Centro), Jerónimos (Retiro) and Atocha (Arganzuela). The station was originally named Atocha after the street on which it is located. On 1 December 2018 its name was changed to Estación del Arte (Art Station), which reflects is proximity to multiple museums, including the Prado Museum, the Reina Sofía Museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and the Círculo de Bellas Artes. The name change also avoids confusion with the larger neighboring Madrid Atocha station, which is located on the same Metro line and also serves commuter and long-distance trains.

The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía ("Queen Sofía National Museum Art Centre"; MNCARS) is Spain's national museum of 20th-century art. The museum was officially inaugurated on September 10, 1990, and is named for Queen Sofía. It is located in Madrid, near the Atocha train and metro stations, at the southern end of the so-called Golden Triangle of Art (located along the Paseo del Prado and also comprising the Museo del Prado and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza). The museum is mainly dedicated to Spanish art. Highlights of the museum include excellent collections of Spain's two greatest 20th-century masters, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí. The most famous masterpiece in the museum is Picasso's 1937 painting Guernica. Along with its extensive collection, the museum offers a mixture of national and international temporary exhibitions in its many galleries, making it one of the world's largest museums for modern and contemporary art. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic it attracted only 1,248,480 visitors, a drop of 72 percent from 2019, but it still ranked sixth on the list of most-visited art museums in the world.It also hosts a free-access library specializing in art, with a collection of over 100,000 books, over 3,500 sound recordings, and almost 1,000 videos.