Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

MADRID

Eight essential apps that make life easier in Madrid

Madrid, the capital of Spain is a great city for foreign residents with lots of job opportunities and a fantastic cultural scene. But, if you want to enjoy the city more and make the most of it, these 8 essential apps will help you out.

Published: 16 March 2023 15:54 CET
Eight essential apps that make life easier in Madrid
Essential apps if you live in Madrid. Photo: Eduardo Rodriguez / Unsplash

For new and old residents alike, Madrid can sometimes seem overwhelming given its size, but fortunately, these apps can make life a little easier, from helping you find a parking space to booking health appointments and navigating your way around the city. Here are some of the best Madrid apps. 

Metro de Madrid

Most Madrid residents can’t get far without using the metro, so this is really one of the most important apps you can have if you regularly travel around the city. It allows you to see waiting times for your nearest station, the stations that are closest to you, metro maps, the status of the network and information about tickets and fares. It will also let you know how much credit is left on your travel card. It’s available for iOS here and Android here.

Madrid Móvil

This is the official app from the Ayuntamiento de Madrid (Madrid Townhall) and really is a must-have for any Madrid resident. It covers a wide range of topics and can be used for everything from finding out where the nearest public toilets and water fountains are located to receiving city-wide alerts and booking a padel court. It’s available for both iOS and Android.

READ ALSO: Madrid to keep schools open to pupils during holidays 

Telpark

If you own a car and live in Madrid, then you’ll know what are nightmare parking can often be. This app can be very useful if you want to find out what zones you can park in and search for parking meters. You can even pay for parking directly through the app, which will also remind you how much time you have left in your space. It’s available for both iOS and Android.

La Guía del Prado

Art lovers will find this app for the city’s famed El Prado museum extremely helpful when looking around. It includes more than 400 works of art with comments from the experts, as well as information about the history of the piece and all about the artist themselves. It’s available for iOS and Android.

BiciMAD

Madrid’s electric bike-sharing scheme also has its own app. Managed by the Municipal Transport Company of Madrid, the scheme has a fleet of more than 2,000 bicycles distributed across 165 stations. The app enables users to search for the nearest bike station, top up their balance, reserve a bike ahead of time and report any incidents. It’s available here for iOS and here for Android.

Guía de Arquitectura Madrid

If you’re a fan of great architecture, then you’ll enjoy this app from the Official College of Architects of Madrid (COAM). It allows you to discover all about the city’s architectural gems, as well the lesser-known ones. It allows you to see various photos of the buildings and also find out about the most interesting building near you. You can download it for iOS and Android.

Cita Sanitaria Madrid

This app, while not particularly entertaining, will save you a lot of hassle when it comes to the Madrid health system. From here, you will be able to book appointments, access your test results and get in contact with your local health clinic. You can download it for iOS and Android. 

Imageen Madrid

If you’re into history, this app is a great choice to get to know the city’s past even better. It enables you to see the city as it once was. Simply point your smartphone at landmarks such as the Puerta del Sol or Gran Vía and you will be able to see a split screen showing you what they look like now and in the past. It also provides you with virtual guides so you can learn about how daily life was back then too. It is available on iOS here and on Android here. 

 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

DISCOVER SPAIN

A history of Madrid’s Barrio de las Letras in seven places

To mark World Book Day, Madrid-based Felicity Hughes takes us on a fascinating journey through the Spanish capital's Literary District, retracing the steps of Hemingway, Cervantes, Dumas and other iconic writers who stayed in this barrio.

Published: 23 April 2024 10:13 CEST
A history of Madrid's Barrio de las Letras in seven places

World Book Day on April 23rd marks the date of Cervantes’ death. The author of Don Quijote lived in the Huertas neighbourhood of Madrid when he published his classic, starting a literary tradition in the area that continues to this day. Also known as Barrio de las Letras, Huertas is Madrid’s equivalent to Bloomsbury.

In my new book, A Guide to Madrid’s Literary District, I explore this heritage in-depth. To celebrate the launch of this guide and to get you prepped for World Book Day, here’s a quick history of the neighbourhood told through seven places.

Teatro Español

While the current neo-classical building was constructed in 1849, Teatro Español traces its history back to 1583. Madrid’s first theatre, Corral del Príncipe was built here 16 years before London’s Globe. As in Shakespeare’s London, the theatre was extremely popular but up until this point, Madrid did not have a dedicated venue. Instead, plays were performed in the courtyards of buildings. In the Corral del Príncipe, lower-class spectators stood in a square courtyard to watch actors perform on stage, while wealthier citizens were up in balconies overlooking the action.

Comic farces involving scandalous plots in which lovers switched partners several times were particularly popular. A writer who excelled at this style of drama was Félix Lope de Vega, Shakespeare’s contemporary and one of the Siglo de Oro’s most famous figures. To this day, you can see his name etched into the facade of Teatro Español, alongside other great writers of the time.

Madrid's Teatro Español

Madrid’s Teatro Español. Photo: Felicity Hugues

Casa Museo Lope de Vega

Lope de Vega didn’t have far to walk to see his words come to life on stage. His house is just a few minutes walk away at number 11 Calle de Cervantes. Now open to the public, you can still wander into the museum’s pretty garden whenever you fancy. Better yet, book yourself in for a free guided tour and you can see the house and hear all about his exciting and slightly disreputable life. A hit with the ladies, the playwright was a prodigious talent and penned around 500 plays during his lifetime. This prompted Cervantes to call him a “monstruo de la naturaleza” (a freak of nature) in his Eight Comedies and Interludes.

Casa de Lope de Vega by Felicity Hughes

Lope de Vega’s house in Madrid. Photo: Felicity Hugues

Convento de las Trinitarias Descalzas

Miguel de Cervantes’ bones lie just one street away in the Convento de las Trinitarias Descalzas at number 18 Calle Lope de Vega. Someone in town planning must have been having a laugh at the expense of both writers when these streets were named! Cervantes’ freak-of-nature taunt came after Lope de Vega had trashed an advance copy of Don Quijote in a letter announcing: “Of poets I do not say: this is a good century! Many are in the making for the coming year. But there is none so bad as Cervantes; nor so foolish as to praise Don Quijote.”

Lope de Vega, of course, was very wrong. Don Quijote was a smash hit when it came out in 1605 and even though Cervantes was pushing 60 when he published his masterpiece, he did get to enjoy his final years in the spotlight. However, this fame didn’t prevent the destruction of his former house at number 2 Calle de Cervantes nor the misplacement of his bones, which are muddled up with other miscellaneous skeletons in a box inside the convent with the initials MC on it!

Madrid's Convento de las Trinitarias

Madrid’s Convento de las Trinitarias. Photo: John Dapolito

Lhardy

As Madrid’s theatre district, Huertas was a thoroughly disreputable place back in Cervantes’ time and a popular saying went: “Calle de Huertas, más putas que puertas” (Calle de Huertas, more whores than doors). However, in the 19th century, this didn’t deter French chef Emilio Huguenin from opening an upmarket restaurant in the area closer to Sol in 1839. A fan of fine dining, Alexandre Dumas famously dined here when he rolled into town.

However, the restaurant wasn’t affordable for many. In fact, Lhardy was considered so posh that Spain’s answer to Dickens, Benito Pérez Galdós declared that they even “put white ties on their Tahona buns.” It’s still going strong and is a great place to soak up the atmosphere of 19th-century Madrid where heated literary salons or tertulias (social gatherings) were often held in coffee shops and restaurants.

Lhardy madrid

Lhardy in Madrid’s Barrio de Las Letras. Photo: John Dapolito

Ateneo de Madrid

The best tertulias were hosted in Ateneo de Madrid, a deceptively slender building tucked away on Calle del Prado. This cultural institution had a rocky beginning during the tyrannical reign of Ferdinand VII when many of its liberal members had to flee to London. However, it was re-established in 1835 after the king died and has been going strong ever since.

The organisation aimed to promote enlightened values that would modernise Spain by fostering scholarship and lively debate and it continues to stick to this philosophy to this day. While it’s still a private member’s club, the spectacular interior of this tardis-like building can be seen by either booking a visit to the library or attending a talk in the gorgeous Salón de Actos.

Madrid’s Ateneo. Photo: John Dapolito

La Venencia

The rumour exchange during the Civil War, this bar has changed little since it was first opened in 1927. The décor, with its wooden tables and gleaming rows of bottles, is simplicity itself. To this day, music is never played, nothing but sherry is served and photos are strictly forbidden, a policy that goes back to the Civil War when Madrid was full of Nationalist spies. Ernest Hemingway would drop in to pick up information during his time as a correspondent in the city. Of course, this wasn’t enough to slake his thirst: Chicote’s on Gran Via was a firm favourite as was Villa Rosa and Cevecería Alemana, both on Plaza Santa Ana.

La Venencia. Photo: Felicity Hughes

Las Cuevas de Sésamo

Another Hemingway haunt in Barrio de las Letras was Las Cuevas de Sésamo. This underground cave was opened up after the war as a clandestine literary salon by former Republican aviator Tomás Cruz Díaz. One of the main attractions of this bar was its literary prize. Tomás launched the Sésamo Prize for theatrical works in 1952 and the scheme was such a success that a short story and painting prize was added, followed in 1956 by an award for novelists. Though the prize money was negligible, the cultural cachet for winners was huge, with many authors going on to forge illustrious careers. These included Soledad Puértolas, Juan Marsé, and Juan José Millás.

Las Cuevas de Sésamo in Madrid. Photo: Sergio de Isidro

Of course, there’s much more to discover about the history of Barrio de las Letras. If you’re interested in the subject, my book A Guide to Madrid’s Literary District from The Secret Kingdoms Press is out now. 

Felicity Hughes is the author of The Making of Madrid, a blog about the history of Madrid.

SHOW COMMENTS