Hotels in Madrid, Spain - Madrid Community Travel & Accommodation Guide

El Rastro Flea Market Madrid Travel Information

A great variety of products (new and used) can be found at el Rastro. A number of antique shops in the local area are also open on Sunday.

El Rastro means "the trail". The market probably owes its name to the tanneries that were once located in Ribera de Curtidores (Ribera de Curtidores means 'riverside of tanners'). Close by, on the banks of the Manzanares River, was an abattoir. Transporting the slaughtered cattle from the abattoir to the tannery left a trail (rastro) of blood along the street. An alternative etymology suggests el Rastro once meant “outside”, referring to the fact el Rastro was once outside the jurisdiction of the mayor’s court

Location and times

According to municipal rules, el Rastro takes place every Sunday and public holiday of the year, from 9 am to 3 pm, in the barrio de Embajadores ('Ambassador’s district') in the Central District of Madrid. The Madrid town council regulates the markets. A maximum of 3500 stalls cover the area from the Plaza de Cascorro, with its statue dedicated to Eloy Gonzalo, who was a Spanish soldier who fought in the Cuban War of Independence in which he distinguished himself and is regarded as a hero, in the north, along the main thoroughfare of Ribera de Curtidores and adjoining streets to Calle Embajadores in the east and the Ronda de Toledo and Plaza del Campillo del Mundo Nuevo in the south.

Transport

El Rastro can be accessed from the following Madrid Metro stations:

• Line 3 from the stations Embajadores, Lavapiés or Sol.
• Line 5 from the stations La Latina, Puerta de Toledo or Acacias.
• Line 1 from the stations Tirso de Molina or Sol.
• Line 2 from the stations Sol or Opera.

Specialty items

Certain streets or areas within El Rastro are associated, either by tradition or by the gathering of specialist stalls, with particular wares.

• Calle Fray Ceferino Gonzales is known as “calle de los Pajáros” ('street of the parrots') as it was where peddlars and travelling sellers would sell domestic animals and birds and associated paraphernalia.
• Calle San Cayetano is also known as "calle de los Pintores" ('street of the Painters'), as its permanent stalls sell paintings and drawings and art supplies.
• Stalls around calle Rodas and the Plaza de General Vara del Rey (formerly Plaza de Antonio Zozaya) and Plaza de Campillo del Mundo Nuevo specialise in buying and selling magazines, trading cards and stamps. A frequent sight in this area is young children swapping and trading with each other.
• Calle Carnero and calle Carlos Arniches are where bouquinistas sell old, rare and collectible books.
• The Plaza de Cascorro specialises in selling funky clothing and accessories.
• Calle Mira el Sol is for the movie buffs with everything from Andrei Tarkovsky to Pajares. 

Temple of Debod Madrid Travel Information

The Temple of Debod is an ancient Egyptian temple which was rebuilt in Madrid, Spain. The temple was built originally 15 km south of Aswan in southern Egypt very close to the first cataract of the Nile and to the great religious center dedicated to the goddess Isis, in Philae. In the early 2nd century BC, Adikhalamani (Tabriqo), the Kushite king of Meroë, started its construction by building a small single room chapel dedicated to the god Amun. It was built and decorated on a similar design to the later Meroitic chapel on which the Temple of Dakka is based. Later, during the reigns of Ptolemy VI, Ptolemy VIII and Ptolemy XII of the Ptolemaic dynasty, it was extended on all four sides to form a small temple, 12 X 15 m, which was dedicated to Isis of Philae. The Roman emperors Augustus and Tiberius completed its decorations. From the quay, a long processional way leads to the stone-built enclosure wall, through three stone pylon gateways and finally to the temple itself. The pranaos, which had four columns with composite capitals collapsed in 1868, and is now lost. Behind it lay the original sanctuary of Amun, the offering table room and a later sanctuary with several side-rooms and stairs to the roof.

Templo De Debod, Madrid, Spain Buy at AllPosters.com

In 1960, due to the construction of the Great Dam of Aswan and the consequent threat posed to several monuments and archeological sites, UNESCO made an international call to save this rich historical legacy.  As a sign of gratitude for the help provided by Spain in saving the temples of Abu Simbel, the Egyptian state donated the temple of Debod to Spain in 1968. The temple was rebuilt in one of Spain's most beautiful parks, the Parque de Rosales, near the royal palace of Madrid, and opened to the public in 1972. It constitutes one of the few works of ancient Egyptian architecture which can be seen outside Egypt and the only one of its kind in Spain.

Teatro Real Madrid Travel Information

The company

The theatre stages around seventeen opera titles (both own productions and co-productions with other major European opera houses) per year, as well as two or three major ballets and several recitals. The orchestra of the Teatro Real is the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid. The present musical director is Jesús López-Cobos. The general director will be Gérard Mortier, effective January 2010.