Madrid

The City of Madrid traces its origins back to a Moorish fortress that was constructed at a strategic crossroads in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the 9th century. The name of the fortress in Arabic, Mayrit, means ‘place that receives abundant waters’.
Contested by Moors and Christians up until the end of the 12th century, when it was definitively seized by the latter, the small Castilian town gradually increased in size and in 1561 King Philip II converted the municipality into the capital of the country and, thereby, the capital of the greatest empire that the world had ever seen.
Madrid reached its first cultural apogee during the ‘Golden Age’, in the 17th century, and was substantially modernised in the period referred to as the Enlightenment, in the second
half of the 18th century, by King Charles III.
Madrid is now a lively, dynamic and decentralised State capital, at the forefront of the Spanish urban system as a result of its economic, social and cultural development, whilst consolidating its position within the network of European and global metropolis.

Mayor

Ms. Ana Botella Serrano Ayuntamiento de Madrid Palacio de Cibeles Plaza de Cibeles, 1 28014 Madrid T.       00 34-91/588 14 88 Fax: 00 34-91/588 19 81 E-Mail: relinternacionales@madrid.es E-Mail: asuntoseuropeos@madrid.es I-Net:  www.madrid.es