Line #58 UsefulNotes/Madrid


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Madrid_skyline_4828.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:A night view of the Madrid skyline, taken from a building at Calle de Juan de Olías. The picture features the AZCA business park; the Torre Picasso is the skyscraper with the architectural equivalent of PowerGlows.]]
3
4	As Website/TheOtherWiki reads, Madrid is the second-largest city and metropolitan area of UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion and also happens to be the capital city of UsefulNotes/{{Spain}}, and the largely discussed center of the Iberian Peninsula, mostly by historical tensions between UsefulNotes/{{France}}-[=like=] political centralists and both left-leaning and conservative elites mainly in Barcelona or even UsefulNotes/{{Lisbon}}.
5
6	Unlike most other European capitals, Madrid wasn't always the capital of Spain, as, although academical and political discussion about when Spain actually became Spain exists, the truth is that there wasn't a capital for Spain before the Habsburgs, namely, [[UsefulNotes/CharlesV Charles I]], who settled for Madrid as a political and economic gravity center as it was becoming custom in their native UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire (though, political centralism in the HRE never actually existed, and was mainly both a goal and a pain in the ass for the late Charles (who was also V of Germany), along with religious uniformity, thus starting quite a few wars).
7
8	Before the Habsburgs reign, there was no such thing as a capital city as the court moved to wherever the kings (namely, UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs) were at the time, thus becoming ''de facto'' capital. Otherwise, Toledo is often regarded as a ''De jure'' capital in pre-imperial times due to it being the capital of Gothic Spain, before the UsefulNotes/{{Moorish\|Spain}} invasion, but was not really enforced after the fall of Granada at the end of the [[UsefulNotes/SpanishReconquista Reconquista]].
9
10	So, by the 1500s, Madrid was just a castle with overgrown surroundings that was mainly born as a garrison on the Muslim-Christian border, while Toledo, Cordoba and Granada were the largest cities in Spanish-controlled Iberian Peninsula (the first for its historical significance for Christians and the latter two for being of same significance, one being former cultural and academical center under Moorish rule, eventually becoming Christian, [[TheRemnant and the other being the last city and capital of the Moorish remnants]] until its surrender to the Catholic Monarchs in 1492).
11
12	Valladolid (the cultural and political center of Castile) and Toledo (the cultural and political center of former visigothic Spain, and so that of the territories acquired by Castile from the Moors, aptly named New Castile) were regarded as possible settling for a capital, but Madrid was chosen because it was equally distanced to both north, south, east and [[UsefulNotes/{{Portugal}} west]] and, probably, because it allowed to build a city from scratch.
13
14	Capital was moved to Valladolid under Felipe III, which managed to cause an economic and demographical meltdown in Madrid as well as a kind of cultural-political thriving in Valladolid, which fell apart once the crown's seat was reverted to Madrid under certain political schemes and political unrest, which caused a similar meltdown in Valladolid and is regarded as a disastrous and bad move altogether.
15
16	Madrid's growth was substantially slow compared to other European capitals, and only skyrocketed after the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar, where it got the bulk of the industrialisation after the Eisenhower-Franco agreements of 1959.
17
18	Prior to that, Madrid had been mainly populated by [[SleazyPolitician societal elites]], [[TheBeautifulElite aristocrats]] and the [[GeneralRipper military higher ranks]] as well as [[RoyallyScrewedUp the royals]], all of them getting [[BreakTheHaughty severely broken]] by the time the war started, [[FromBadToWorse and got worse during the war.]]
19
20	Today, Madrid is considered an Alpha World City, one of the top ten most powerful cities in the world, and is usually regarded in Spanish media and culture in three flavors:
21
22	!!'''The Welcoming Capital'''
23
24	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/3264114388_c765ea45d4_z.jpg]]
25	[[caption-width-right:350:Chamartín and the ''Sierra'', as seen from the south]]
26
27	In this setting, the usual saying "''De Madrid al cielo''" (From Madrid to heaven) applies,
28	''Madrileños'' are friendly and welcoming, and won't ask you uncomfortable questions about anything as long as you dont disturb anybody, there is work for everybody who wants one, and [[CityOfAdventure is a rich city full of opportunities to enrich yourself culturally, academically, profesionally or socially, and get a grown-up person]]. While TruthInTelevision, at least when envisioned by rural folks both in TheFifties or even in [[TheNineties the early Nineties]] as well as some South American media, this was deconstructed as early as the ''19th century'' and comes across as an UnbuiltTrope regarding media, while ''coplas'' y ''zarzuelas'' (traditional music) very usually plays this straight.
29
30	!!'''The Frivolous Bunch'''
31
32	Allegedly, film director Alex de la Iglesia claimed "Madrid is the sort of place where you realize if the world doesn't come to an end today, it surely will happen tomorrow". This is where dreams go to die, the full place is a WretchedHive populated by [[StepfordSmiler emptied-out nouveau rich]], morally lacking [=CEOs=], [[SleazyPolitician self-serving public authorities]] where all of them will smile and greet at you unless you fall from grace and be damned to share space with the lower classes, which are usually portrayed as [[KickTheDog poorer than dirt, sexually deviant, struggling white trash who usually are also drug addicts with AIDS]][[note]]Spanish film industry had a tendency to shoehorn every known social issue in a limited number of characters, in order to show their consciousness or realism about the issues portrayed, which, while anvilicious, comes as an unfortunate ContrivedCoincidence of misery[[/note]]
33
34	[[folder:General]]
35
36	* Anything set during the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar as well as during TheForties and TheFifties ''will'' be a CrapsackWorld. Also TruthInTelevision.
37
38	[[/folder]]
39	[[folder:Film]]
40
41	* [[Film/TheLastCircus Balada Triste de Trompeta]] by the aforementioned Alex de la Iglesia, a very, very, ''very'' dark and twisted portrayal of the city, and, by extension, Spanish society starting with the last shots of the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar to the last breath of [[UsefulNotes/FranciscoFranco Franco]] forty years later. Franco, himself, makes a cameo and is [[NiceGuy arguably the nicest character in the film]], [[EvenEvilHasStandards which is saying something]].`
42	** By the same director: ''[[Film/TheDayOfTheBeast El Día de la Bestia]]''. A Basque priest travels to Madrid and becomes evil in order to contact Satan, as he has learned he will spawn TheAntichrist in the city on December 25th, 1993 with help of a Satanic heavy metal-rabid fan (who is a hopeless loser who lives with his racist mother, her naive twenty-something tenant and his mentally disabled grandfather) and a TV Occult Guru who sells books on making a DealWithTheDevil and teach Satanism ''on TV'' but is secretly a fraud. All while the city is gang-crime rotten. People keeps dying, nobody cares. All PlayedForLaughs. Also, Pedro Solbes, who was a Minister for Economy and Finances both in the [[TheNineties early Nineties]] and the late [[TheNewTens New Tens]] makes a cameo by way of stock footage in an appliance store while the TV guru appears next to him to announce the impending apocalypse.
43
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	!!'''The Mixed Thing'''
47
48	This portrayal tries to make a balanced point toning down the former two and alternating between like a darker aspects, this is the most common portrayal for more light-hearted works wich still
49	try to make serious points from time to time.
50
51	[[folder:Film]]
52	* Almost anything by {{Creator/Pedro Almodovar}} that is set in Madrid will be something between a love letter to the city and its acceptance of diversity and a reflection of how harsh the city itself can really be after all.
53	[[/folder]]
54
55	!!'''Geography'''
56
57	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/poblacion_por_distritos_de_madrid.jpg]]
58
59	Madrid is divided into 21 districts that are dependent of the City Council but that have each its own police department belonging to the Cuerpo Nacional de Policia (Dependent of the Ministry of the Interior on the national government) and has only one decentralized Policía Municipal (A police department dependent of the council and ''not'' the Government with chapters on each district and Policía Local, which nobody is quite sure who they respond to. Should you need security assistance (And it is rather unlikely, as Madrid is quite safe except for small pickpocketing) you should ask for the first one (Cuerpo Nacional de Policía) as Policía Municipal and Policía Local don't really have much of a say on crime prosecution.
60
61	Tourists usually don't leave the inner districts, if they do leave Centro district at all, where everything is located. The districts are fairly segregated socio-economically with a strong north-south distinction, being the northern ones typically middle-class, the southern ones tipically working-class and the inner ones typically upper class. Each of the districts are divided in Boroughs, with in and on themselves are as well socio-economically segregated.
62
63	The reason for this is historical, at the end of the 19th Century the burgeois and aristocrat upper classes left the traditional city and built large colonies with wide avenues and larger buildings around the old quarter. Then immigrants and poorer classes arriving to the city built smaller, cheaper buildings around the city, engulfing the previous upper class colonies. And then, desegregation policies built colonies targeted to middle classes inside and around the former in order to avoid guettification, which resulted in mixed results.
64
65	We'll try to summarize the 21 Districts below:
66
67	!!!'''Centro'''
68
69	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dsc_8718_copia_copia_buena2super_copia.jpg]]
70	[[caption-width-right:350:Plaza de Callao, for you all cinema lovers]]
71
72	This is the old town and where most of the touristic sites can be found. The Royal Palace[[note]]The Royal Family doesn't live there since 1931[[/note]], built upon the former muslim enclave, the Opera right in front of it, the Puerta del Sol[[note]]a square in the center of the city with a UsefulNotes/{{Hachiko}}-esque statue of a bear and a orange tree, symbol of the city and a popular meeting place. It's also very popular for being in the geographical center of the country, and the starting point of most of its radial-like road and highway network (Also known as the "Km. Zero"). One of Madrid's biggest icons[[/note]] nearby and the Golden Triangle of Art[[note]]The Prado Museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Reina Sofía Museum[[/note]]. The Centro district notably [[WhereEverybodyKnowsYourFlame notably holds a large LGBT population]] concentrated around Chueca Metro Station in the Justicia Borough (named after the Tribunal metro station but lacking any actual court[[note]]It's named Tribunal because of the Tribunal de Cuentas, which is, or was, actually more of a government accounting department[[/note]]) that has decentralized a lot during TheNewTens and has expanded over the nearby Universidad borough[[note]]where there isn't any university located[[/note]] which is noted for its hipster and alternative scene and for being the place where the ''Movida Madrileña'' happened[[note]]This has something to do with a certain Pedro Almodovar[[/note]]. Cortes Borough is also informally known as ''Barrio de las Letras'' where the likes of Cervantes used to hang out and is now a well known ''tapas'' & bistro bar stockholder. Palacio Borough holds Plaza de España and is well known for its otaku, heavy-metal, emo and far right skinhead scenes, which are some odd things to put near each other [[note]]If you're curious about it, several comic book, manga, tabletop games and merchandising stores are concentrated in the surroundings of Noviciado down to Desengaño Street and Plaza de España. Strong heavy metal scene is associated with Princesa Street from Plaza de España up to Argüelles in the Moncloa District, Emos used to hang out in the Plaza de España itself, as well as far right skinheads for [[UsefulNotes/MisplacedNationalism symbolic reasons or something]][[/note]]. Embajadores Borough is well known for high Middle-Eastern immigration, extreme leftism, and so-called alternative arts as well as for [[RunningGag not actually having any embassy within it]].
73
74	Also, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Debod there's an egyptian temple]]
75
76	[[folder: Works set in Centro]]
77	* The aforementioned ''[[Film/TheDayOfTheBeast ElDíaDeLaBestia]]'' as well as ''Film/LaComunidad'' by {{Creator/Alex de la Iglesia}}.
78	* ''Film/TheBourneUltimatum''
79	* ''Film/OpenYourEyes'', by {{Creator/Alejandro Amenabar}}, shows a vacant Gran Vía.
80	* ''Film/TieMeUp'', by {{Creator/Pedro Almodovar}}.
81	* TheList
82	* ''Series/AquiNoHayQuienViva'', spiritual predecessor of ''Series/LaQueSeAvecina'', is stated to be set in Desengaño, 21[[note]]The actual street doesn't have a 21 nor resembles that of the show at all, as it's notoriously more dark and gritty than the shiny, polished, [[ProductPlacement full of top-notch brands casually present]] and somewhat unreal TV depiction[[/note]]
83
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	!!!'''Retiro, Salamanca and Chamberí'''
87
88	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/filename_madcam_70_jpg.jpg]]
89	[[caption-width-right:350: Some classy folks]]
90	The original burgeois colonies. At the end of the 19th Century the upper classes where sickened from the unhealthy and overpopulated old town (read: Centro District) and begged for the king to tear down the city walls and expand the city. The project was conducted upon the orders of the Marquis of Salamanca and gave birth to these three districts. Chamberí and Salamanca are akin to the Upper West and East Side of New York, they are on opposing sides of the Paseo de la Castellana, and they hate each other's guts. Chamberi is populated mostly by old aristocracy, retired diplomats, and [[UpperClassTwit general old money]] that regard the denizens of Salamanca as obnoxious nouveau riches. The Chamberi District was utterly ravished on the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar and currently holds the Joaquin Sorolla Museum, located on the own painter's old manor, which is a pinnacle of spanish impressionism, as well as many embassies. The Salamanca Borough holds high executives, Media Personalities and Bankers and the USA Embassy, and regard the denizens of Chamberi as a dying chaste who has nothing to say and UpperClassTwit galore. Both are notably economically affluent and conservative. Retiro holds the eponymous park, that used to be the King's private gardens, and is usually the odd man out, politically and otherwise.
91
92	[[folder: Works set in Retiro, Salamanca and/or Chamberí]]
93	[[/folder]]
94
95	!!!'''Tetuán and Chamartín'''
96
97	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/centrofinancierdefazca.jpg]]
98	[[caption-width-right:350:At world's end]]
99
100	Chamartín is the financial center of Madrid, home of some large companies and some Ministries[[note]]on the aptly named Nuevos Ministerios[[/note]]. This is where the top image buildings are located. Also, this is where the Chamartín Train Station is located. Tetuán is just a mostly middle class residential district. Notably, Real Madrid Stadium, Santiago Bernabeu, is located in south Chamartin (Hispanoamérica borough).
101
102	[[folder: Works set in Tetuán and/or Chamartín]]
103
104	* ''Film/OpenYourEyes'' shows several scenes there, most notably the film's climax.
105	* ''[[Film/TheDayOfTheBeast El Día De La Bestia]]'' ends [[spoiler: confronting TheAntichrist]] at the Torres Kio in Chamartín.
106	* ''VideoGame/MarioKartTour'' features a track based on Madrid whose first variant goes through the area of Chamartín, including a surprise trip within Real Madrid's stadium. In ''VideoGame/MarioKart8 Deluxe'', this represents the track's third lap.
107
108	[[/folder]]
109
110	!!!''Hortaleza and Barajas''
111
112	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/t4_644x362.jpg]]
113	[[caption-width-right:350:The Madrid Barajas - Adolfo Suarez International Airport T4]]
114
115	Mostly middle class residential districts which used to be independent towns. Hortaleza is strongly working class at its north, middle class at its middle[[note]]no pun intended[[/note]] (around Mar de Cristal) and upper class at its south (Where the ''Lycee Français'' is located), thus, inverting the general trend of the city. Mostly of social-democrat leanings with a slight conservative taste. Barajas is way more working class, way more leftist and this is also where the International Madrid Barajas - Adolfo Suarez Airport is located. The Moscow scenes in ''Film/DoctorZhivago'' were actually filmed there, in the Canillas borough (then a barren field, now a middle class neighbourhood). Incidentally, Hortaleza has the biggest Orthodox Christianity church in Madrid.
116
117	Not to be confused with Hortaleza ''Street'', of LGBT notoriety, which is in Centro District.
118
119	[[folder: Works set in Hortaleza and/or Barajas]]
120	[[/folder]]
121
122	!!!''Fuecarral-El Pardo and Moncloa-Aravaca''
123	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/faro_de_moncloa_madrid.jpg]]
124	[[caption-width-right:350:The spiky thing is the Spanish Air Force HQs]]
125	The first is mostly a residential district (as the two districts above) notable for its humongous size most of which is not urbanized[[note]]The urbanized area is ''actually'' Fuencarral, the non urbanized area is El Pardo, which is a large forest upon a hill[[/note]]. This is where the Royal Family actually live[[note]]on an isolated palace on the northwesternmost part of the aforementioned forest[[/note]]. Moncloa-Aravaca is notable because of the large government facilities related to the Spanish Air Force and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid main campus[[note]]Notably, Palacio de la Moncloa, which is the official residence of the Prime Minister of Spain, it's not located on these government facilities but in another government complex enclosed within the UCM Campus[[/note]]. Aravaca is mostly high class {{suburbia}}. Also, Fuencarral has a sizeable japanese population and Moncloa has a large forest mass known as Casa de Campo that used to be, well, a royalty country house.
126
127	Fuencarral is also known for its TV Studios, of which Mediaset Spain's are the more (in)famous.
128
129	Not to be confused with Fuencarral ''Street'', of commercial notoriety, which is in Centro District.
130
131	[[folder: Works set in Fuencarral-El Pardo and/or Moncloa-Aravaca]]
132
133	* ''Film/{{Tesis}}'' by Creator/AlejandroAmenabar. Set at UCM Campus as well as Aravaca.
134	* The surroundings, urban milieu and general architecture of Mirador de Montepinar, where the cast of LaQueSeAvecina live, as well as their SitcomArchnemesis La Atalaya del Arcipreste are highly reminiscent of that of Las Tablas, in Fuencarral. Granted, that's where Telecinco studios are located and most of the exteriors for the show are filmed.
135
136	[[/folder]]
137
138	!!!'''Latina''', '''Carabanchel''', '''Usera''' and '''Villaverde'''
139
140	Districts that are mostly working class residential area with a distinct "urban" bent due to the large hispanic (read: latin american) population. Usera has, also, a rather large muslim population, mostly from Morocco. Carabanchel is the setting of the popular nineties children novels ''Manolito Gafotas'', detailing the life of the eponymous chubby kid with his struggling parents, cynical grandfather and rather marginal neighbors and friends in a comedic/satyrical tone[[note]]Also, [[RunningGag he was from]] ''Upper Carabanchel'', [[BerserkButton not]] ''Lower Carabanchel''[[/note]]
141
142	Usera also has a notoriously conspicuous chinese colony, to the point of getting ads and signs ''in chinese''.
143
144	[[folder: Works set in Carabanchel, Latina, Usera and/or Villaverde]]
145
146	* In ''[[Film/TheDayOfTheBeast ElDíaDeLaBestia]]'', Jose María claims he's from Carabanchel.
147	* Fictional borough Esperanza Sur from ''Aída'' (set in the ''7 Vidas'' universe) is implied to be in one of these districts. [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield Where, exactly, is left deliberately ambiguous and inconsistent]]. Given the somewhat unflattering, if PlayedForLaughs, depiction of the place, it's understandable.
148	* In ''[[Film/AssassinsCreed2016 Assassin's Creed]]'' (the 2016 film), Callum Lynch (Creator/MichaelFassbender) is detained by modern-day Templars at the "Abstergo Rehabilitation Center" in Madrid where he has to relive the GeneticMemory of his 15th century Spanish Assassin ancestor. The giant bunker-like Abstergo building is fictional but was superimposed on an aerial view of the San Isidro ''barrio'' of Carabanchel in the place of a local cemetery.
149
150	[[/folder]]
151	!!!'''Puente de Vallecas''' and '''Villa de Vallecas'''
152
153	Well known traditional working class districts with distinct communist leanings, the only districts to always fall on the left in results maps. With the same ''urban'' aspects as Latina, Carabanchel, Usera or Villaverde, it is less diverse though immigration is still strong there. Has its own, underdog and proud of it, football team: Rayo Vallekano.
154
155	[[folder: Works set in Vallecas]]
156
157	* ToReturn, by [[Creator/PedroAlmodovar]].
158

Context UsefulNotes / Madrid