The Companion Guide to Madrid and Central Spain

This book performs with great thoroughness all the usual functions of a guidebook. But it is much more than a mere inventory of buildings paintings sculpture routes and views supplemented by appendices packed with practical information. The authors - from their long experience and deep knowledge of the country - are exceptionally well-equipped to draw together into a coherent whole all the threads of history art culture and recent developments. They steer you in most rewarding directions enlivening the hallowed hush of museum or sacristy with an original interpretation of some great painter - El Greco Goya Picasso - or an observation which suddenly illuminates the seemingly unexceptional. Madrid rather than just a political capital at the geographical centre of the country is revealed as a true metropolis genuinely representative of all the aspects and regional variations of Spanish life. Its art collections are justly renowned as superb. Add in the cluster of historical cities at an easy distance (including Segovia Avila and Toledo) to say nothing of the lesser-known treasures and delights secreted in the heartlands of Castile and you have within a manageable compass the core of Spanish civilisation.