Plaza de la Independencia (Madrid)

The Puerta de Alcalá is a Neo-classical gate in the Plaza de la Independencia in Madrid, Spain. It was a gate of the former Walls of Philip IV. It stands near the city center and several meters away from the main entrance to the Parque del Buen Retiro. The square is bisected by Alcalá Street, although the street does not cross through the monument, and it is the origin of the Alfonso XII, Serrano and Olózaga streets. Its name originates from the old path from Madrid to the nearby town of Alcalá de Henares. Madrid in the late 18th century still looked like a somewhat drab borough, surrounded by medieval walls. Around the year 1774, King Charles III commissioned Francesco Sabatini to construct a monumental gate in the city wall through which an expanded road to the city of Alcalá was to pass, replacing an older, smaller, gate that stood nearby. It was inaugurated in 1778. The ornamental details were sculpted by Francisco Gutiérrez and Roberto Michel, and made of white stone from Colmenar. The architectural elements are chiefly made of granite from Segovia.The central plaque reads rege carolo iii anno mdcclxxviii.

Espacio Solo – and its accompanying Colección Solo – is a private contemporary art museum in Madrid, founded by Spanish industrialist Ana Gervás and entertainment executive David Cantolla in 2013 and expanded into its current form in 2018. The collection comprises 948 paintings, sculptures and drawings by an international group of artists, including established and emerging artists working in figurative art, contemporary sculpture, pop surrealism and new media. The art collection forms the core of several museum programs that aim to support artists and art education across Madrid with different art support projects, awards and grants.

The Palacio del Marqués de Portugalete was a grand palace built in the 1860s, located at 56 Calle de Alcalá, on the corner of Calle Alfonso XI, in Madrid. Also known as the Palace of Bailén, it belonged to the family of Francisco Javier Castaños y Aragorri, a descendant of General Francisco Castaños, who was the victor at the Battle of Bailén. It was built by architect Adolfo Ombretch, who also built the nearby palace of Linares. For many years it was a venue for the wealthy elite to meet and discuss national politics. It was demolished after the Spanish Civil War, and in 1946, replaced by the National Institute of Forecast, now occupied by the National Institute of Health.

The Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas (National Museum of Decorative Arts; originally, "National Museum of Industrial Arts") is located at 12 Montalbán Street, in Madrid, Spain, to the south of the Puerta de Alcalá and the western side of the Buen Retiro Park. It is one of the oldest museums in the city, situated within the Golden Triangle of Art. Following the example of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, it illustrates the evolution of industrial or "minor arts", including furniture, ceramics, glass, and textiles. The collections emphasize the 16th and 17th centuries in particular; its collection contains approximately 70,000 pieces. Its 62 exhibition rooms are within a palace near the Jardines del Retiro de Madrid. The museum received 71,472 visitors in 2017.

Retiro is a metro station which serves the Retiro District and Buen Retiro Park in Madrid, Spain.

Saint Manuel and Saint Benedict (Spanish: San Manuel y San Benito) is a Catholic church located in Madrid, Spain. The building, which was designed by Fernando Arbós y Tremanti, was built at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was declared Bien de Interés Cultural in 1982.

The Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas ("Centre for Sociological Research") or CIS is a Spanish public research institute. It was founded in 1963 as the Instituto de la Opinión Pública, and in 1977, after the Spanish general election in that year, acquired its present name.: 728 The institute publishes the Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas and various series of books.: 728 Since 2018, the President of the CIS is José Félix Tezanos.

The 1892 Historical American Exposition held in Madrid was intended to mark the four hundredth year of the discovery of America.

Cercanías Madrid is the commuter rail service that serves Madrid, the capital of Spain, and its metropolitan area. It is operated by Cercanías Renfe, the commuter rail division of Renfe, the former monopoly of rail services in Spain. The system is known for being the target of the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings. The total length spans 370 km.

The Madrid Defense Council (Spanish: Junta de Defensa de Madrid) was an ad-hoc governing body that ran Madrid, Spain, for about six months during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). It was formed in November 1936 after the Spanish Republican government had fled to Valencia when General Francisco Franco's forces advanced on Madrid. It was expected that the city would fall within a few days, but the arrival of the International Brigades halted the rebel advance, and the situation settled into a stalemate. The council was dominated by communists, who had superior organization and propaganda to the other groups. Their policy was to organize the militias into regular troops and focus on defeating the enemy, rather than to undertake revolutionary activity. As time passed there was growing tension between the communists and more radical groups. The council was dissolved in April 1937 and replaced by a new city council.

The siege of Madrid was a two and a half year siege of the Republican controlled Spanish capital city of Madrid by the Nationalist armies under General Francisco Franco, during the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939. The city, besieged from October 1936, fell to the Nationalist armies on 28 March 1939. The Battle of Madrid in November 1936 saw the most intense fighting in and around the city when the Nationalists made their most determined attempt to take the Republican capital. The highest military awards of the Spanish Republic, the Laureate Plate of Madrid (Spanish: Placa Laureada de Madrid) and the Madrid Distinction (Spanish: Distintivo de Madrid), established by the Republican government to reward courage, were named after the capital of Spain because the city symbolised valour and Republican resistance during the long siege throughout the Civil War.

The Palace of Linares (Spanish: Palacio de Linares) is a palace located in Madrid, Spain. It was declared national historic-artistic monument (precursor of the status of Bien de Interés Cultural) in 1976. Located at the plaza de Cibeles. It is the seat of the Casa de América.