Plaza Mayor
An enclosed monumental complex, laid out between 1617 and 1619 by Juan Gómez de Mora during the reign of Philip III over the former Plaza del Arrabal, the market outside the Puerta de Guadalajara. The adjective “Mayor” marks it as the town’s main square. Through the 19th and 20th centuries its name alternated with Plaza de la Constitución, Plaza Real, and Plaza de la República, depending on the regime, until it recovered Plaza Mayor in 1939.
Madrid’s Plaza Mayor was born neither a square nor a major one. It began as an open-air market outside the medieval wall, beside the old Puerta de Guadalajara, where the people of Madrid bought and sold long before anyone dreamed of arcades.
Philip II commissioned the first design from Juan de Herrera, which produced the Casa de la Panadería, finished in 1590. His son Philip III ordered the space enclosed, and Juan Gómez de Mora completed the work in 1619. Fire struck it three times —1631, 1672, and 1790—; after the last blaze, Juan de Villanueva gave it the shape we know today. At the center rides Philip III in the equestrian statue by Giambologna and Pietro Tacca, set in place in 1848.
Few places in Madrid have seen so much: proclamations of kings, autos-da-fé of the Inquisition, public executions, bullfights, and the beatification of Saint Isidore in 1620, all where the town market once pulsed.
Its names
- Plaza del Arrabal15th century – 1619
- Plaza de la Constitución1812-1814, 1820-1823 y 1833-1873 (con interrupciones)
- Plaza de la República1873 y 1931-1939
- Plaza Mayorfrom 1939