Most of the monuments and landmarks in our city is not as bereft of them as I'd believed. Madrid does have clear medieval roots - and actually, they reach back even further, as the area had been inhabited since prehistoric times. But the roots of the city per se can be traced to a settlement called Matrice, established in the 2nd century BCE during the Roman Empire´s colonization of the Iberian Peninsula. When the area was conquered in the 8th century by Muslim invaders from North Africa and became part of Islamic Al Andalus, they christened it Mayrit and built a castle and citadel called Al Mudanya (whose name is reflected in today´s cathedral of La Almudena which stands in its place) as well as a mosque alongside - around all of which a town grew up.

Read more in my post Discovering Madrid´s Little Known Medieval Legacy.

David Paul Appell