GRAN VIA, First Part

Hi, I'm James, your personal guide. Together with MyWoWo, I'd like to welcome you to one of the wonders of the world.

Today I'll accompany you along the Gran Via, which is one of the most characteristic areas of Madrid!

The idea of a Gran Vía, or a "Great Way" connecting the capital's new eastern districts with the western ones and going around the narrow and chaotic central streets came about in the mid 1800s, but it wasn't until the beginning of the next century that the project designed to turn Madrid into a modern, cosmopolitan, European city was finally approved.

And so on April 4th, 1910, King Alfonso XIII was accompanied by his wife and other members of the royal family to strike the first blow to the so-called "priest's house" with a silver pickaxe; the building was located next to the present church of San José and was the first of many buildings taken down over a forty-year period to make way for the new road....