plaza de España

Plaza de Espana at the western end of Gran Via was laid out in 1911 and completed in 1960 with the bronze monument to Miguel de Cervantes. In front of a stone wall bearing the seated writer ride Don Quixote on Rocinante and Sancho Panza on his donkey, one of Madrid's most photographed sculptural groups. The square is flanked by two late-Franco-era towers: the slimmer Torre de Madrid of 1957, long Spain's tallest building, and the massive Edificio Espana of 1953 with its copper-coloured brick facade, reopened in 2021 as a Riu hotel. A 2021 redesign turned the square largely car-free, with water features and a wide pedestrian link towards the Templo de Debod.