Contemporary architecture Spain

Opened in 1998, Hemisfèric is the first building in the city of Arts and Sciences. This futuristic building designed by Santiago Calatrava and is a human eye, that symbolises the look of the public. L'Hemisfèric houses the largest IMAX cinema in Spain, with a screen in 3D tilted covering 900 m ² and 24 m in diameter. The programme includes movies on the dinosaurs, nature, wide open spaces and adventure.

By bus, you don't expect to discover an architectural price: Well, this will be the case in Casar de Cacéres. Created in 2004 by Justo García Rubio, a estrémègne architect, the station earned its author to be a finalist in the Spanish National Award of Architecture and awarded by the Estrémègne prize of creation, with numerous photos in the newspapers. The building is a white concrete ribbon painted on itself to do two loops, similar curves, one small and the other big, wrap over. The largest loop welcomes buses and serves as a shelter for travellers by protecting them from rain or wind. The second is a very chic and stylish bar area. If the ensemble of the ensemble does not reflect Oscar Niemeyer's architecture, aesthetics have not been the only bias of this project since, for the sake of functionality, its curve is also studied so that the exhaust gas of buses is diverted from nearby schools. A board, go to see it and enjoy a drink in the bar: The cellar is good and you will be used, among other things, for tentempiés (small snacks destined literally to keep you on foot).

Inaugurated in 2009, the Ágora is the newest born of the City of Arts and Sciences. Imagined by architect Santiago Calatrava, the Ágora is the highest building in the CAC, with its 80 m height. The shape of the building gives rise to many interpretations, the most common of which is the one with two interlaced hands. Covered with blue trim, a mosaic composed of ceramic shards, the Ágora presents itself as a huge covered place which allows to host major events, including the open tennis of Valencia. La Caixa Foundation announced its willingness to build a Caixaforum in this place, which opened in 2020.

It ends the Gran Vía and combines a pyramidal structure with a Baroque-inspired façade. Built between 1948 and 1953 by the brothers Julian and José María Otamendi Machimbarrena, the building bears witness to the Francoist trend of alternating brick and limestone. In the 1950s, it was the highest building in Spain. For a long time it was known as the "swearing building" because of the astonishing swearwords that spontaneously came out of the mouths of onlookers who contemplated it. It is 117 metres high. The 28 floors and the rooftop pool were served by 32 elevators. Until 2005, the ground floor housed a luxury hotel. Since then, it has been bought by the Santander Group for its rehabilitation. After changing hands several times since then, it was the Riu Plaza Group that acquired it in 2017 and opened in August 2019, after more than twenty months of work, the Riu Plaza España Hotel. With 27 floors, 550 rooms, an outdoor pool and a Sky Bar, among other things, this is one of the new flagships of the Madrid hotel industry well installed in an emblematic building of the capital.

Opposite is the Torre de Madrid building, a 130 m high tower. It was built by the same architects as the Edificio España. Originally, it was the highest concrete building in the world.

In the centre of the square , don't miss the monument to Cervantes with Don Quixote and the hilarious Sancho Panza, both on their respective mounts, at the feet of their creator.

These fountains are known as the "Cuatro Fuentes del Prado" ("the four fountains of the Prado") and are located between the eponymous museum and the Botanical Garden.They are nicknamed Fuentecillas ("Little Fountains") and are the work of Ventura Rodríguez. They date from 1781 and represent dolphins playing with newt children. Their only difference is in the position of the newts. Major festivals such as Carnival, St. John's Eve or San Pedro gather many people from Madrid around them.