PLAZA MAYOR, Exterior

Plaza Mayor is surrounded by arcades, pinnacles, attics, slate roofs and, as you can see, by a large number of balconies. Don't bother counting them: there are 237. Why so many? There is a historical reason: at the time of the Habsburg monarchy of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the balconies were sold or leased to the authorities. In fact, these exclusive vantage points were used to watch the different spectacles that were celebrated in the square: folk festivals, bullfights, processions, beatifications, and the dramatic "Autos de Fé", which were the executions at the end of the Inquisition trials.

Among the buildings of Plaza Mayor, your eyes will immediately be drawn to the frescoes adorning the facade of the so-called "Casa de la Panaderia", or the house of the bakery. This building dates back to the late 1500s, but has been rebuilt several times over the centuries and is so named because its ground floor originally housed the "tahona pública", a sort of bakery for the poor. Currently its "Hall of Columns" is the seat of Madrid's Central Tourism Office.

Under the arcades of Plaza Mayor you'll find various cafes, restaurants, and traditional locales, while Sunday morning you'll find a lively and renowned philatelic and numismatic market. In December the beautiful enclosure is occupied by the classic Christmas market where they sell everything from spruce to mangers, from moss to decorations, and from masks to wigs....