Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas

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.

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.

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.

Bolsa de Madrid (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈbolsa ðe ˈmaðɾið]; Madrid Stock Exchange) is the largest and most international of Spain's four regional stock exchanges (the others are located in Barcelona, Valencia, and Bilbao) that trade shares and convertible bonds and fixed income securities, and both government and private-sector debt. Bolsa de Madrid is owned by Bolsas y Mercados Españoles.

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 la Bolsa de Madrid (Spanish: Palacio de la Bolsa de Madrid) is a nineteenth-century building located in Madrid, Spain. It is a neo-classical building, featuring a portico supported by six Corinthian columns. It was given the heritage listing Bien de Interés Cultural in 1992.

Cibeles Palace (Spanish: Palacio de Cibeles), formally known as Palacio de Comunicaciones (Palace of Communications) and Palacio de Telecomunicaciones (Palace of Telecommunications) until 2011, is a complex composed of two buildings with white facades and is located in one of the historical centres of Madrid, Spain. Formerly the city's main post office and telegraph and telephone headquarters, it is now occupied by Madrid City Council, serving as the city hall, and the public cultural centre CentroCentro.

The Salón de Reinos (translated as "Hall of the Kingdoms" or "Hall of Realms") or salón grande ("great hall") is a 17th-century building in Madrid, originally a wing of the Buen Retiro Palace. The Salón de Reinos and the Casón del Buen Retiro are the only survivors of the original grand scheme of the palace. Built between 1630 and 1635, the Hall of Realms housed the largest paintings in the royal collection, now all in the Museo del Prado. It is named after its paintings of the coats of arms of the 24 kingdoms which formed the Kingdom of Spain at the time of Philip IV of Spain. The building served as the Museo del Ejército from 1841 to 2010 when the military collections were put on display at the Alcázar of Toledo. The Prado Museum acquired the vacant building to display part of its collections and made its renovation the subject of an architectural competition. The brief was to redesign the space as part of the campus of the art museum for its 200th anniversary. It was won in 2016 by a scheme from the British firm Foster and Partners and the Spanish firm Rubio Arquitectura.

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.

The monument to Maria Christina of Bourbon (Spanish: María Cristina de Borbón) is an instance of public art in Madrid, Spain. Designed by Mariano Benlliure and consisting of a bronze statue of the aforementioned queen consort and regent of Spain and a stone pedestal with additional sculptural elements, the monument lies in front of the Casón del Buen Retiro.

The Plaza de la Independencia (Independence Square) is a central square in the Spanish capital, Madrid. It sits at the intersection of Calle de Alcalá (running from east to west), Calle de Alfonso XII (to the south), Calle de Serrano (to the north), Calle de Salustiano Olozaga (to the northwest), and the Paseo de Mexico (to the southeast, running entirely within the Buen Retiro Park). Being centred with the 18th-century gate of Puerta de Alcalá, the Plaza de la Independencia is among the important symbols of the city of Madrid. The square was opened in 1778 during the reign of King Carlos III. It was designed by architect Francesco Sabatini. However, the current shape of the square dates back to 1869. It is mainly surrounded with buildings from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, built during the expansion of the city of Madrid.