Madrid.

Madrid , the capital and largest city of Spain, as well as the administrative center of the homonymous province and autonomous community .

It is situated on the banks of the river Manzanares in the center of the country. Because of this capital has a great message to all the Spanish provinces.

This is the youngest European city.His story begins in 852 , when the Moors built a fortress here Madzhirit . In 1083 the fortress was captured Christians. In the next five centuries, Madrid was just another satellite of the Spanish city of Toledo, who was then the capital of Spain . That all changed in 1561 when King Philip II, when the capital was moved to Madrid.Since the city began to grow rapidly , but its current beauty he pribrel only in the XVIII century . with the advent of the Bourbons.

Today is a modern city with broad avenues , leafy boulevards and magnificent palaces . Located at an altitude of 600 m above sea level, Madrid is one of the highest capitals in Europe.

One of the main cultural attractions of the city - the Prado Museum , founded by Maria Isabella of Braganza, the second wife of Ferdinand VII. In 1819, the museum is housed in its present building as the Royal Museum . The museum building commissioned by King Charles III in 1785, designed by the architect Juan de Villanueva.Two other major museum in Madrid - Reina Sofia Museum and Thyssen Museum - along with the Prado Museum form the so- called Golden Triangle of Art. In the first collection of modern art paintings . In particular , the museum Reina Sofia is the most famous painting of Pablo Picasso's Guernica , as well as works by Salvador Dali and Joan Miro.In the Museum Thyssen- Bornemisza are paintings of different eras , beginning with the Renaissance and ending with the works of the Impressionists, the Cubists and Surrealists . Also of interest is the collection of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, which has about 1300 paintings, including works by Velazquez , Rubens and Goya.

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