Plaza de la Villa, Madrid

Plaza de la Villa is a historic urban square beside Calle Mayor, enclosed by buildings that preserve some of Madrid’s oldest surviving civil architecture. The most remarkable story belongs to Casa de los Lujanes: its tower forms part of the oldest civil building still standing in Madrid, dating from the 15th century. As local tradition has it, Francis I of France was held there after his capture at the Battle of Pavia in 1525.

Casa de Cisneros adds a 16th-century palace, while the Casa de la Villa is the former city hall, completed in 1693 after a long building programme. The square once carried the name Plaza de San Salvador, recalling a vanished church whose atrium hosted Madrid’s early municipal meetings. A market was authorised here on Tuesdays in 1463.

At the square’s centre, Álvaro de Bazán stands in a bronze statue created by Mariano Benlliure and unveiled on 19 December 1891. He rests a hand on his sword and holds a commander’s baton; beneath him, a Turkish flag marks the naval victories for which he is remembered.