title: Scottie Pippen

text: However, one of the most controversial moments of Pippen's career came in his first year without Jordan. In the 1994 NBA Playoffs, the Eastern Conference Semifinals pitted the Bulls against the New York Knicks, whom the Bulls had dispatched en route to a championship each of the previous three seasons. On May 13, 1994, down 2–0 in the series in Game 3, Bulls coach Phil Jackson needed a big play from his team to have any chance of going on to the conference finals. With 1.8 seconds left and the score tied at 102, Jackson designed the last play for Toni Kukoč, with Pippen instructed to inbound the basketball. Pippen, who had been the Bulls' leader all season long in Jordan's absence, was so angered by Jackson's decision to not let him take the potential game-winner that he refused to leave the bench and re-enter the game when the timeout was over. Although Kukoč did hit the game-winner, a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer, there was little celebrating by the Bulls, as television cameras caught an unsmiling Phil Jackson storming off the court. "Scottie asked out of the play," Jackson told reporters moments later in the post-game interview.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: A key play occurred in the following Game 5 which changed the outcome of the series. With 2.1 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the Knicks' Hubert Davis attempted a shot which was defended by Pippen, who was called for a personal foul by referee Hue Hollins, who determined that Pippen made contact with Davis. Television replays indicated that contact was made after Davis had released the ball. Davis successfully made both free throw attempts to assist in the Knicks victory, 87–86, and gave the Knicks a three games to two advantage in the series. The resulting incident was described as the most controversial moment of Hollins' career by "Referee" magazine. Hollins defended the call after the game saying, "I saw Scottie make contact with his shooting motion. I'm positive there was contact on the shot." Darell Garretson, the league's supervisor of officials and who also officiated in the league, agreed with Hollins and issued a statement, "The perception is that referees should put their whistles in their pockets in the last minutes. But it all comes down to what is sufficient contact. There's an old, old adage that refs don't make those calls in the last seconds. Obviously, you hope you don't make a call that will decide a game. But the call was within the context of how we had been calling them all game." Garretson later changed his stance of the call the next season. Speaking to a "Chicago Tribune" reporter, Garretson described Hollins' call as "terrible". Chicago head coach Phil Jackson, upset over the outcome of the game, was fined $10,000 for comparing the loss to the gold medal game controversy at the 1972 Summer Olympics.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: In Game 6, Pippen made the signature play of his career. Midway in the third quarter, Pippen received the ball during a Bulls fast break, charging toward the basket. As center Patrick Ewing jumped up to defend the shot, Pippen fully extended the ball out, absorbing body contact and a foul from Ewing, and slammed the ball through the hoop with Ewing's hand in his face. Pippen landed several feet (some meters) away from the basket along the baseline, incidentally walking over a fallen Ewing. He then made taunting remarks to both Ewing and then Spike Lee, who was standing courtside supporting the Knicks, thus receiving a technical foul. This extended the Bulls' lead to 17; they won 93–79.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: In the final Game 7, Pippen scored 20 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, but the Bulls still lost 87–77. The Knicks then proceeded to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Houston Rockets, also in seven games.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: Trade rumors involving Pippen escalated during the 1994 off-season. Jerry Krause, the Bulls' general manager, was reportedly looking to ship Pippen off to the Seattle SuperSonics in exchange for all-star forward Shawn Kemp, moving Toni Kukoč into Pippen's position as starting small forward with Kemp filling in the vacant starting power forward position in place of Horace Grant, a free agent who left the Bulls for the up-and-coming Orlando Magic during the off-season. In January, when asked by Craig Sager as to whether he thought that he would be traded, Pippen replied, "I hope I am". However, Pippen would remain a Bull and those rumors were put to rest once it was announced that Michael Jordan would be returning to the Bulls, late in the season. Badly lacking interior defense and rebounding due to Grant's departure, the Pippen-led Bulls did not play as well in the season as they had in the season before. In fact, for the first time in years, they were in danger of missing the playoffs. The Bulls were just 34–31, prior to Jordan's return for the final 17 games, and Jordan led them to a 13–4 record to close the regular season. Still, Pippen finished the season leading the Bulls in every major statistical category—points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks—joining Dave Cowens () as the only players in NBA history to accomplish the feat; Kevin Garnett (), LeBron James (), Giannis Antetokounmpo () and Nikola Jokić () have since matched it.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: With the return of Michael Jordan and the addition of multiple NBA rebound leader Dennis Rodman, the Bulls posted the best regular-season record in NBA history at the time (72–10) in en route to winning their fourth title against the Seattle SuperSonics. Later that year, Pippen became the first person to win an NBA championship and an Olympic gold medal in the same year twice, playing for Team USA at the Atlanta Olympics.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: The Bulls opened 1996–97 NBA season with a 17–1 record and had a league-best record of 42–6 when entering the All-Star break. Both Pippen and Jordan were selected among the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History as part of the league celebrating its 50th season. The ceremony was held at half-time of the 1997 NBA All-Star Game, which took place on February 9, 1997. Phil Jackson, the Bulls' head coach, was honored as one of the 10 greatest coaches in NBA history, while the 1992 Chicago Bulls Championship team and the 1996 Chicago Bulls Championship team, on which Pippen had played a key role, were selected as two of the Top 10 Teams in NBA History. In the All-Star game itself, Pippen was 4–9 from the field, finishing with 8 points as well as 3 rebounds and 2 assists in 25 minutes of play. The East defeat the West 132–120 and Glen Rice was crowned the All-Star Game MVP.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: Pippen scored a career high of 47 points in a 134–123 win over the Denver Nuggets on February 18, going 19–27 from the field and adding 4 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals in 41 minutes of play. On February 23 Pippen was voted "Player of The Week" for the week of February 17, his 5th and final time to receive that honor. As the league entered its final weeks the Bulls lost several of their key players, including Bill Wennington (ruptured tendon in his foot), Dennis Rodman (injured knee), and Toni Kukoč (inflamed sole on his foot). Pippen and Jordan were forced to shoulder a greater load while keeping the team headed towards a playoff appearance. Even with this challenge Chicago finished a league-best 69–13 record. In the final game of the regular season, Pippen missed a game-winning 3-pointer, leaving the Bulls just short of having an NBA record-setting back-to-back 70-win seasons. For his efforts in the 1996–97 NBA season, Pippen earned NBA All-Defensive First Team honors for the 7th consecutive time as well as All-NBA Second Team honors.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: Despite injuring his foot in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat, Pippen helped the Bulls to an 84–82 victory over the Utah Jazz in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. One of the highlights of the game was when Jazz star Karl Malone was fouled by Dennis Rodman with 9.2 seconds left and had a chance to give Utah the lead and Pippen famously psyched Malone out, before he stepped up to the line, by saying: "Just remember, the mailman doesn't deliver on Sundays." He missed both free throws. Jordan got the rebound and quickly called a time-out with 7.5 seconds left. With play resumed, Jordan dribbled out most of the clock, then launched a shot that went in at the buzzer to give Chicago a 1–0 series lead. In Game 3 of the series, Pippen tied a then finals record of seven 3-pointers, but Chicago still lost 104–93. In Game 5 Jordan was battling illness but still managed to dominate the game, with the Bulls winning 90–88. With only seconds remaining and the outcome safely in Chicago's favor, Jordan collapsed into Pippen's arms, creating an iconic image of the pair that has come to symbolize "The Flu Game". During Game 6, Pippen made one of the greatest plays of his career. Trailing by two, after Steve Kerr's jump shot with 5 seconds remaining, the Jazz looked for a final shot to stay alive, but Pippen knocked away Bryon Russell's inbound pass intended for Shandon Anderson and rolled the ball over to Toni Kukoč, who dunked to give the Bulls a 90–86 lead, clinching their fifth championship. Afterwards, Jordan was named Finals MVP for the fifth time.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: The season began amid speculation that it would be the last in Chicago for Pippen, Jordan, and Jackson. Pippen had purposefully delayed off-season surgery so that his summer off-season would not be complicated by rehab, pushing his unavailability well into the regular season. In addition to this increasing the load on Jordan to drive the team towards a potential final championship together, it stirred an active effort by Bulls general manager Jerry Krause to trade Pippen, who responded in turn with his own trade demand and rancorous sit-out that extended well beyond his return to playing condition. In spite of this, Pippen ultimately rejoined the team, without any much-deserved contract renegotiation to pay him what he was worth relative to the then league pay scale, and joined Jordan in another Bulls run to the 1998 NBA Finals, where they again bested the Jazz to win their second three-peat.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: After eleven seasons with the Chicago Bulls, Pippen, the franchise's second all-time leader in points, assists, and steals, was traded by the rebuilding Bulls in January 1999 in a sign-and-trade deal to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Roy Rogers and a 2nd round pick in the 2000 NBA draft (Jake Voskuhl). Pippen's trade to Houston for the lockout-shortened season received much publicity, including his only solo cover of "Sports Illustrated". In order for the Rockets to create enough salary-cap room to acquire Pippen, Charles Barkley said that he sacrificed greatly as he signed a five-year $67.2 million contract before the previous season. Pippen's salary was $11 million, almost four times what it had been the previous season with the Chicago Bulls, $2.775 million.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: Alongside Barkley, his former Olympic teammate and future NBA Hall of Famer, Pippen joined Hakeem Olajuwon, but on-court chemistry problems emerged, especially with Barkley. Pippen had his first triple-double in a 93–87 loss against the Atlanta Hawks as he had 15 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists in addition to 1 steal in 46 minutes of play. On April 22, 1999, Pippen was detained by police on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. The charges were later dropped due to insufficient evidence. Pippen had his second triple-double of the season in a 106–101 loss against the Los Angeles Clippers, posting 23 points, 10 assists, and 10 rebounds in addition to 6 steals in 45 minutes of play. Despite averaging a career-high in minutes per game with 40.2 and finishing 4th in the NBA in minutes played, Pippen's scoring was down to 14.5 points per game, his lowest since his rookie year, and he made a career-low 43.2 percent of his shots. However, he also averaged his exceptional combination for a small forward of 6.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game, and was named to the NBA All-Defensive first team for the 8th time. The Rockets finished the season with a 31–19 record, third in the Midwest Division and fifth in the Western Conference. They faced the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the playoffs. In game 3 of the series, Pippen scored 37 points and had 13 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1 block in staving off elimination. The Lakers went on to win the series the following game, defeating Houston 98–88.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: Following the season's end and the Rockets' early elimination from the playoffs, Pippen expressed a desire to be traded. Charles Barkley appeared on "Up Close" and openly criticized Pippen, saying, "For him to want to leave after one year, it disappointed me greatly. The Rockets went out of their way to get Scottie and the fans have treated him well, so I was just disappointed in him." Pippen responded by saying, "I wouldn't give Charles Barkley an apology at gunpoint. He can never expect an apology from me. If anything, he owes me an apology for coming to play with his fat butt." He stated that the main reasons for his departure were Barkley's selfishness and his lack of desire to win. He also expressed the wish to play for his former coach Phil Jackson, who was now coaching the Los Angeles Lakers. Pippen said one of the reasons he wanted to play for Jackson was that he longed to return to the system in which they won six NBA titles together in Chicago. Pippen was traded by the Houston Rockets to the Portland Trail Blazers on October 2, 1999, in exchange for Stacey Augmon, Kelvin Cato, Ed Gray, Carlos Rogers, Brian Shaw and Walt Williams.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: Pippen claimed the starting small forward position with the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1999–2000 NBA season. Playing alongside new stars such as Rasheed Wallace and Steve Smith, Pippen continued to demonstrate his defensive capabilities, even past his prime. On January 3, when the Trail Blazers faced the Bulls, Pippen was honored with a video tribute highlighting his best moments in his 11-year career with the Bulls. Pippen later commented on the tribute by saying, "It was very emotional for me, but I tried to handle it as well as possible realizing I had a game to play. It was something that brought back a lot of memories for me, a lot of things I miss about this city, playing in this arena." Under head coach Mike Dunleavy, the Trail Blazers posted a 59–23 record and clinched the second spot in the Pacific Division and the third spot in the Western Conference. Pippen started in all 82 games that season, averaging 12.5 points per game, 5 assists and 6.3 rebounds per game. In the first round of the 2000 NBA Playoffs, Portland defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 3 games to 1. Their opponents in the second round were the Utah Jazz. In game 5, with Portland trailing by 2 points, Pippen hit a three pointer with 7.3 seconds remaining. The Jazz fouled Pippen on the next play, and he made one of two free throws to give the Blazers an 81–79 lead. The Trail Blazers won the series 4–1 and advanced to the Western Conference Finals. There, they faced the Los Angeles Lakers, coached by Phil Jackson, Pippen's former coach in Chicago. The series stretched to a deciding game 7, in which the Trail Blazers held a 15-point lead in the 4th quarter. However, led by the All-Star duo of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal, the Lakers managed to erase Portland's lead and win the game 89–84 and with that also the series. In the game Pippen struggled, shooting only 30% from the field and totaling 12 points and 10 rebounds. The Lakers proceeded to the 2000 NBA Finals' where they faced the Indiana Pacers and were eventually crowned the NBA Champions.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: In the 2000–01 NBA season, Pippen played 64 games, starting in 60 of them. He was forced to miss 18 games due to tendinitis in his right elbow, which was his shooting arm. Pippen started being bothered by minor injuries during December but still managed to play. His right arm stiffened after a game with the Boston Celtics on January 8. He missed the next six games, and after a two-point performance in a loss to the Sacramento Kings on January 20, the injury again became too painful for him. He had the elbow examined by several doctors before going into surgery. After undergoing a procedure to remove a bone fragment in his right elbow, he made his return on February 22 against the Utah Jazz and played for the remainder of the season. Pippen finished the season with averages of 11.3 points per game, 4.6 assists and 5.2 rebounds per game. The Trail Blazers finished the season with a 50–32 record, fourth in the Pacific Division and seventh in the Western Conference. They were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the returning and eventual repeat champions, the Los Angeles Lakers.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: Pippen played for two more seasons in Portland: the Trail Blazers made the playoffs both years, but were eliminated in the first round each time, in another sweep to the Lakers and in a tough 7-game series to the Mavericks, respectively. On February 3, 2003, by then 37 years old, Pippen willed the Trail Blazers to a win over the Orlando Magic with 25 points, 17 rebounds, and 7 assists.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: After the season, Pippen left Portland to sign with the Chicago Bulls, where he had begun his NBA career and won six championships. The Bulls' general manager John Paxson pursued Pippen to return to his old team, which had little success following the breakup of the Bulls dynasty in 1998. The deal was made official on July 20, 2003, as Pippen signed a two-year, $10 million contract with the franchise. Pippen assumed a veteran role on the team in order to guide the young Bulls team, but was faced with numerous injuries throughout the season and was only able to play 23 games, averaging 5.9 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. He played the final game of his NBA career against the Seattle SuperSonics on February 2, 2004, scoring two points, with one rebound and three assists in eight minutes of play in a 109–97 loss. The Bulls compiled a 23–59 record, failing to qualify for the playoffs. This marked the first time in Pippen's career that his team did not reach the playoffs. Pippen had been a constant presence in the NBA playoffs prior to this season, reaching the playoffs in 16 straight years (11 with Chicago, 1 with Houston, 4 with Portland). He is second in the NBA in career playoff steals with 395 (LeBron James leads with 445). On October 5, 2004, Pippen announced his retirement.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: The Chicago Bulls retired Pippen's jersey number in a ceremony on December 9, 2005. The team played against the Los Angeles Lakers that night and Pippen was reunited with Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman, and Horace Grant during the ceremony. Pippen's 33 joined Michael Jordan's 23, Bob Love's 10, and Jerry Sloan's 4 as the only numbers retired by the Bulls.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: In 2007, Pippen had attempted to make an NBA comeback as he expressed that he would like to play for a championship contender in hopes of getting his 7th Championship ring. Pippen had spent the winter working out in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and announced that he was hoping for a late-season return to the league. Dwyane Wade, who was the Finals MVP of the 2006 NBA Finals and the captain of the returning champions, the Miami Heat, liked the idea of Pippen making a comeback and expressed his views on it: "I'm already playing with Payton and Shaq, two guys I used to play with on video games. To add Scottie Pippen to the mix, that would be crazy."


title: Scottie Pippen

text: In January 2008, Pippen made a brief comeback to professional basketball at age 42, when he made a tour of Scandinavia and played two games for top Finnish league team Torpan Pojat (ToPo), and top Swedish league team Sundsvall. In his first game, on January 4, Pippen scored 12 points in ToPo's 93–81 win over Porvoo. He registered nine points and nine rebounds in a 98–85 win over Honka on January 5.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: In his third game of the tour, Pippen registered 21 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and two steals in 30 minutes in a 102–74 Sundsvall Dragons win over Akropol of Rinkeby. The Dragons paid Pippen $66,000 for his appearance.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: On September 21, 1991, amongst nine other players (two more would be later selected), Pippen was announced as a member of the United States men's Olympic basketball team which was set to represent the United States of America in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: In 1992, Pippen played on the original Dream Team which competed in the Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. With the U.S. winning the gold medal, Pippen and teammate Michael Jordan became the first players to win both an NBA championship and an Olympic gold medal in the same year. He also played on the 1996 squad (nicknamed 'Dream Team III').


title: Scottie Pippen

text: Pippen returned to the Bulls on July 15, 2010, as a team ambassador. In 2012, he was named senior advisor to Michael Reinsdorf, the Bulls' president and COO.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: On April 16, 2020, Pippen stated that he had been dismissed as a public relations ambassador for the Bulls in February. According to NBC Sports Chicago, he and the Bulls could not come to an agreement on compensation and allowing him to keep his role of making regular TV appearances on ESPN's "The Jump". He quipped, "I didn't really want it to be out in the public but I'm no longer employed by the Bulls. Probably is a good thing, right? I like to associate myself with winning."


title: Scottie Pippen

text: Pippen was famed for his defensive abilities, having made the NBA All Defensive Team ten consecutive years during his career and leading the league in steals in . Jackson once described him as a "one-man wrecking crew", capable of guarding anyone from the point guard to the center position. Pippen is one of three players in NBA history (along with Jordan and Olajuwon) to record 200 steals and 100 blocks in a season, and he has the record for second-most career steals in the playoffs (395) behind James. He was skilled at staying in front of his man on defense, and particularly effective as a help defender, with his long arms in traps. He was also capable of chasing down an opposing player in transition to block shots from behind.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: On offense, Pippen relied primarily on his remarkable athleticism to gain an advantage over his defender; he slashed towards the basket for higher percentage shots. Early in his career, Pippen was not an adept jump shooter; he struggled when shooting directly on a line to the basket. He favored shooting his jump shots—mid-range and three-pointers—on an angle. He could regularly bank the ball off the backboard into the basket. He honed his jump shot over the course of his career and became more effective at scoring from distance later in his career.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: Pippen is remembered as one of the greatest basketball defenders of all time, and one of the most versatile and agile players overall. Much like fellow Bulls teammate Michael Jordan, he provided tenacious on-the-ball perimeter defense or tough interior defense, and was particularly effective as a help defender. He was gifted with extraordinary athleticism, even compared with other professional athletes, and skills in areas that bode well for basketball.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: Pippen's unusually long arms (with a wingspan) and jumping agility helped him clog the passing lanes on defense, block shots from behind on players that had managed to pass him by, grab seemingly out-of-reach rebounds, make unusual plays in mid-air, and make passes around defenders that most players are physically unable to make. He often led the Bulls in assists and blocks as a result. He was also known as a selfless player, and his team-focused approach to the game was a key component in the Bulls' championship wins. His career assists total of 6,135 (5.2 per game), which was 23rd all-time among all players when he retired, is a testament to that approach.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: Pippen's intense work ethic and athletic physique gave him the ability to consistently make highlight-reel plays, such as applying defensive intensity, forcing a turnover, stealing the ball, and starting a one-man fast break that he would finish with a thunderous slam dunk. As he himself has attested, he and Jordan would compete to see who could force more turnovers and produce more offense from defense in each game (fast-break points). During the 1990 Slam Dunk Contest, Pippen exhibited his leaping ability with a dunk from the free-throw line. He was an athletic finisher at the rim, both with slam dunks and a skillful finger roll that he added to his skill set over time. He was also a prolific perimeter shooter for the time, taking about 3,000 and making almost 1,000 three-pointers in his career.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: Several NBA players, including Jordan, Jason Kidd, and Karl Malone have placed Pippen in their all-time starting lineups.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: In order to commemorate the 20th anniversary of their first NBA Championship in 1991, the Chicago Bulls organization honored the 1991 Chicago Bulls Championship team in a ceremony during halftime of a game versus the Utah Jazz on March 12, 2011. Pippen and Michael Jordan both attended and participated in the celebration, where they were reunited with their former teammates John Paxson, Horace Grant, Stacey King, Craig Hodges, Will Perdue, Scott Williams, Cliff Levingston, Dennis Hopson and Assistant Coach Johnny Bach. Former head coach Phil Jackson did not participate but gave a speech via a video message. Former Bulls' broadcaster Jim Durham emceed the halftime ceremony.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: On March 17, 2011, the Chicago Bulls organization announced that they would honor Pippen with a bronze statue which will be placed inside of the Bulls' home arena, the United Center. He expressed his gratitude by saying: "Words really can't express my feelings. It's something you dream of as a kid growing up, but you can never foresee those childhood fantasies becoming reality. You see statues of individuals who have done great things and made their mark on history, but as a basketball player, you never really think about arriving at this point. It's an amazing honor for the Chicago Bulls to do this for me." The statue was unveiled on April 7, 2011, during a halftime ceremony of a game between the Chicago Bulls and the Boston Celtics.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: Although his given name is spelled "Scotty" on his birth certificate, Pippen usually goes by "Scottie". His nephew, Kavion Pippen, plays basketball for the Long Island Nets.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: Pippen has been married twice, first marrying Karen McCollum in 1988. They had a son named Antron (December 29, 1987 – April 18, 2021) before divorcing in 1990. He married Larsa Pippen in 1997, who later became a "Real Housewives of Miami" star. They have four children: Scotty Jr. (b. November 10, 2000), Preston (b. August 26, 2002), Justin (b. July 11, 2005), and Sophia (b. December 26, 2008). Though Pippen filed for divorce in 2016, he later dropped it, but Larsa filed for divorce in 2018, which became final in late 2021. Scotty Jr. plays for the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA, and Sophia appeared on the first season of "".


title: Scottie Pippen

text: Pippen also has a daughter named Sierra (b. February 17, 1995) with his former fiancée Yvette De Leon, and a daughter named Taylor (b. July 20, 1994) with his former girlfriend Sonya Roby. Taylor's twin sister, Tyler, died nine days after birth. Taylor played volleyball at Southern Illinois University while majoring in accounting.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: Pippen developed a reputation for being a poor tipper at restaurants, earning him the nickname "No Tippin' Pippen". Shortly after retiring, Pippen learned that his financial adviser Robert Lunn, whom he claimed had been recommended by the Bulls, was under investigation for bank fraud. He had invested over $20 million through Lunn, who was sentenced to three years in prison in March 2016 on multiple fraud counts, including one count of forging Pippen's signature on a $1.4 million loan that Lunn used to pay off personal debts.


title: Scottie Pippen

text: On May 27, 2011, Pippen generated a great deal of criticism by saying that Miami Heat star LeBron James may be a better player than Michael Jordan. This came only a day after the Heat beat the Bulls 4 games to 1 to advance to the 2011 NBA Finals. Pippen said, "Michael Jordan is probably the greatest scorer to ever play the game. I may go so far as saying LeBron James may be the greatest player to ever play the game." Pippen faced a backlash from Bulls fans after his comments, and even former teammates such as Horace Grant, who stated in a radio interview, "Wow, Pippen's my man, and we'll always be close, but I totally disagree. LeBron is going to be one of the top players to ever play the game, but Michael Jeffrey Jordan, who we bumped heads at times, is I think, the best basketball player I've ever seen." In a later interview on the radio show "Kap & Haugh", Pippen stated, "No, I did not say I would take LeBron over Michael. The reality is you need to go back and figure out what I said."


title: Scottie Pippen

text: On July 11, 2013, Camran Shafighi filed a $4 million lawsuit against Pippen in Los Angeles Superior Court over an incident that had occurred on June 23 at the restaurant Nobu in Malibu, California. Shafighi said that he was physically attacked by Pippen after taking pictures of Pippen inside and outside the restaurant, and was then taken to a hospital. On August 27, the district attorney's office announced that charges would not be filed against Pippen.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and its monocentric metropolitan area is the third-largest in the EU. The municipality covers geographical area.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid lies on the River Manzanares in the central part of the Iberian Peninsula. Capital city of both Spain (almost without interruption since 1561) and the surrounding autonomous community of Madrid (since 1983), it is also the political, economic and cultural centre of the country. The city is situated on an elevated plain about from the closest seaside location. The climate of Madrid features hot summers and cool winters.


title: Madrid

text: The Madrid urban agglomeration has the second-largest GDP in the European Union and its influence in politics, education, entertainment, environment, media, fashion, science, culture, and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities. Due to its economic output, high standard of living, and market size, Madrid is considered the major financial centre and the leading economic hub of the Iberian Peninsula and of Southern Europe. The metropolitan area hosts major Spanish companies such as Telefónica, Iberia, BBVA and FCC. It concentrates the bulk of banking operations in the country and it is the Spanish-speaking city generating the largest amount of webpages.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid houses the headquarters of the UN's World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), and the Public Interest Oversight Board (PIOB). It also hosts major international regulators and promoters of the Spanish language: the Standing Committee of the Association of Spanish Language Academies, headquarters of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), the Instituto Cervantes and the Foundation of Emerging Spanish (FundéuRAE). Madrid organises fairs such as FITUR, ARCO, SIMO TCI and the Madrid Fashion Week. Madrid is home to two world-famous football clubs, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid.


title: Madrid

text: While Madrid possesses modern infrastructure, it has preserved the look and feel of many of its historic neighbourhoods and streets. Its landmarks include the Plaza Mayor, the Royal Palace of Madrid; the Royal Theatre with its restored 1850 Opera House; the Buen Retiro Park, founded in 1631; the 19th-century National Library building (founded in 1712) containing some of Spain's historical archives; many national museums, and the Golden Triangle of Art, located along the Paseo del Prado and comprising three art museums: Prado Museum, the Reina Sofía Museum, a museum of modern art, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, which complements the holdings of the other two museums. Cibeles Palace and Fountain has become one of the monument symbols of the city. The mayor is José Luis Martínez-Almeida from the People's Party.


title: Madrid

text: There are various theories regarding the origin of the toponym "Madrid" (all of them with problems when it comes to fully explain the phonetic evolution of the toponym along history), namely:


title: Madrid

text: The site of modern-day Madrid has been occupied since prehistoric times, and there are archaeological remains of the Celtic Carpetani settlement, Roman villas, a Visigoth basilica near the church of Santa María de la Almudena and three Visigoth necropoleis near Casa de Campo, Tetuán and Vicálvaro.


title: Madrid

text: The first historical document about the existence of an established settlement in Madrid dates from the Muslim age. At the second half of the 9th century, Cordobese Emir Muhammad I built a fortress on a headland near the river Manzanares, as one of the many fortresses he ordered to be built on the border between Al-Andalus and the kingdoms of León and Castile, with the objective of protecting Toledo from the Christian invasions and also as a starting point for Muslim offensives. After the disintegration of the Caliphate of Córdoba in the early 11th century, Madrid was integrated in the Taifa of Toledo.


title: Madrid

text: In the context of the wider campaign for the conquest of the taifa of Toledo initiated in 1079, Madrid was seized in 1083 by Alfonso VI of León and Castile, who sought to use the town as an offensive outpost against the city of Toledo, in turn conquered in 1085. Following the conquest, Christians occupied the center of the city, while Muslims and Jews were displaced to the suburbs. Madrid, located near Alcalá (under Muslim control until 1118), remained a borderland for a while, suffering a number of "razzias" during the Almoravid period and its walls were destroyed in 1110. The city was confirmed as "villa de " (linked to the Crown) in 1123, during the reign of Alfonso VII. The 1123 Charter of Otorgamiento established the first explicit limits between Madrid and Segovia, namely the Puerto de El Berrueco and the Puerto de Lozoya. Since 1188, Madrid won the right to be a city with representation in the courts of Castile. In 1202, Alfonso VIII gave Madrid its first charter to regulate the municipal council, which was expanded in 1222 by Ferdinand III. The government system of the town was changed to a "regimiento" of 12 "regidores" by Alfonso XI on 6 January 1346.


title: Madrid

text: Since the mid-13th century and up to the late 14th century, the "concejo" of Madrid vied for the control of the Real de Manzanares territory against the "concejo" of Segovia, a powerful town north of the Sierra de Guadarrama mountain range, characterised by its repopulating prowess and its husbandry-based economy, contrasted by the agricultural and less competent in repopulation town of Madrid. After the decline of Sepúlveda, another "concejo" north of the mountain range, Segovia had become a major actor south of the Guadarrama mountains, expanding across the Lozoya and Manzanares rivers to the north of Madrid and along the Guadarrama river course to its west.


title: Madrid

text: In 1309, the Courts of Castile convened at Madrid for the first time under Ferdinand IV, and later in 1329, 1339, 1391, 1393, 1419 and twice in 1435.


title: Madrid

text: During the revolt of the Comuneros, led by Juan de Padilla, Madrid joined the revolt against Charles, Holy Roman Emperor, but after defeat at the Battle of Villalar, Madrid was besieged and occupied by the imperial troops. The city was however granted the titles of "Coronada" (Crowned) and "Imperial".


title: Madrid

text: The number of urban inhabitants grew from 4,060 in the year 1530 to 37,500 in the year 1594. The poor population of the court was composed of ex-soldiers, foreigners, rogues and Ruanes, dissatisfied with the lack of food and high prices. In June 1561 Phillip II set his court in Madrid, installing it in the old "alcázar". Thanks to this, the city of Madrid became the political centre of the monarchy, being the capital of Spain except for a short period between 1601 and 1606, in which the Court was relocated to Valladolid (and the Madrid population temporarily plummeted accordingly). Being the capital was decisive for the evolution of the city and influenced its fate and during the rest of the reign of Philip II, the population boomed, going up from about 18,000 in 1561 to 80,000 in 1598.


title: Madrid

text: During the early 17th century, although Madrid recovered from the loss of the capital status, with the return of diplomats, lords and affluent people, as well as an entourage of noted writers and artists together with them, extreme poverty was however rampant. The century also was a time of heyday for theatre, represented in the so-called "corrales de comedias".


title: Madrid

text: The city changed hands several times during the War of the Spanish Succession: from the Bourbon control it passed to the allied "Austracist" army with Portuguese and English presence that , only to be retaken by the Bourbon army on 4 August 1706. The Habsburg army led by the Archduke Charles in September 1710, leaving the city less than three months after. Philip V entered the capital on 3 December 1710.


title: Madrid

text: Seeking to take advantage of the Madrid's location at the geographic centre of Spain, the 18th century saw a sustained effort to create a radial system of communications and transports for the country through public investments.


title: Madrid

text: Philip V built the Royal Palace, the Royal Tapestry Factory and the main Royal Academies. The reign of Charles III, who came to be known as "the best mayor of Madrid", saw an effort to turn the city into a true capital, with the construction of sewers, street lighting, cemeteries outside the city and a number of monuments and cultural institutions. The reforms enacted by his Sicilian minister were however opposed in 1766 by the populace in the so-called Esquilache Riots, a revolt demanding to repeal a clothing decree banning the use of traditional hats and long cloaks aiming to curb crime in the city.


title: Madrid

text: In the context of the Peninsular War, the situation in French-occupied Madrid after March 1808 was becoming more and more tense. On 2 May, a crowd began to gather near the Royal Palace protesting against the French attempt to evict the remaining members of the Bourbon royal family to Bayonne, prompting up an uprising against the French Imperial troops that lasted hours and spread throughout the city, including a famous last stand at the Monteleón barracks. Subsequent repression was brutal, with many insurgent Spaniards being summarily executed. The uprising led to a declaration of war calling all the Spaniards to fights against the French invaders.


title: Madrid

text: The city was invaded on 24 May 1823 by a French army—the so-called Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis—called to intervene to restore the absolutism of Ferdinand that the latter had been deprived from during the 1820–1823 "trienio liberal". Unlike other European capitals, during the first half of the 19th century the only noticeable bourgeois elements in Madrid (that experienced a delay in its industrial development up to that point) were merchants. The University of Alcalá de Henares was relocated to Madrid in 1836, becoming the Central University.


title: Madrid

text: The economy of the city further modernized during the second half of the 19th century, consolidating its status as a service and financial centre. New industries were mostly focused in book publishing, construction and low-tech sectors. The introduction of railway transport greatly helped Madrid's economic prowess, and led to changes in consumption patterns (such as the substitution of salted fish for fresh fish from the Spanish coasts) as well as further strengthening the city's role as a logistics node in the country's distribution network. Electric lightning in the streets was introduced in the 1890s.


title: Madrid

text: During the first third of the 20th century the population nearly doubled, reaching more than 850,000 inhabitants. New suburbs such as Las Ventas, Tetuán and El Carmen became the homes of the influx of workers, while Ensanche became a middle-class neighbourhood of Madrid.


title: Madrid

text: The Spanish Constitution of 1931 was the first to legislate the location of the country's capital, setting it explicitly in Madrid. During the 1930s, Madrid enjoyed "great vitality"; it was demographically young, becoming urbanized and the centre of new political movements. During this time, major construction projects were undertaken, including the northern extension of the Paseo de la Castellana, one of Madrid's major thoroughfares. The tertiary sector, including banking, insurance and telephone services, grew greatly. Illiteracy rates were down to below 20%, and the city's cultural life grew notably during the so-called "Silver Age" of Spanish Culture; the sales of newspapers also increased. Conversely, the proclamation of the Republic created a severe housing shortage. Slums and squalor grew due to high population growth and the influx of the poor to the city. Construction of affordable housing failed to keep pace and increased political instability discouraged economic investment in housing in the years immediately prior to the Civil War. Anti-clericalism and Catholicism lived side by side in Madrid; the burning of convents initiated after riots in the city in May 1931 worsened the political environment. However, the 1934 insurrection largely failed in the city.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid was one of the most heavily affected cities in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). It was a stronghold of the Republican faction from July 1936 and became an international symbol of anti-fascist struggle during the conflict. The city suffered aerial bombing, and in November 1936, its western suburbs were the scene of an all-out battle. The city fell to the Francoists in March 1939.


title: Madrid

text: A staple of post-war Madrid ("Madrid de la posguerra") was the widespread use of ration coupons. Meat and fish consumption was scarce, resulting in high mortality due to malnutrition. Due to its history as a left-wing stronghold, the right-wing victors toyed with the possibility of moving the capital elsewhere (most notably to Seville), such plans were never implemented. The Franco regime instead emphasized the city's history as the capital of formerly imperial Spain.


title: Madrid

text: The intense demographic growth experienced by the city via mass immigration from the rural areas of the country led to the construction of plenty of housing in the peripheral areas of the city to absorb the new population (reinforcing the processes of social polarization of the city), initially comprising substandard housing (with as many as 50,000 shacks scattered around the city by 1956). A transitional planning intended to temporarily replace the shanty towns were the "poblados de absorción", introduced since the mid-1950s in locations such as Canillas, San Fermín, Caño Roto, Villaverde, , Zofío and Fuencarral, aiming to work as a sort of "high-end" shacks (with the destinataries participating in the construction of their own housing) but under the aegis of a wider coordinated urban planning.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid grew through the annexation of neighboring municipalities, achieving the present extent of . The south of Madrid became heavily industrialized, and there was significant immigration from rural areas of Spain. Madrid's newly built north-western districts became the home of a newly enriched middle class that appeared as result of the 1960s Spanish economic boom, while the south-eastern periphery became a large working-class area, which formed the base for active cultural and political movements.


title: Madrid

text: After the fall of the Francoist regime, the new 1978 constitution confirmed Madrid as the capital of Spain. The 1979 municipal election brought Madrid's first democratically elected mayor since the Second Republic to power.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid was the scene of some of the most important events of the time, such as the mass demonstrations of support for democracy after the failed coup, 23-F, on 23 February 1981. The first democratic mayors belonged to the centre-left PSOE (Enrique Tierno Galván, Juan Barranco Gallardo). Since the late 1970s and through the 1980s Madrid became the center of the cultural movement known as "la Movida". Conversely, just like in the rest of the country, a heroin crisis took a toll in the poor neighborhoods of Madrid in the 1980s.


title: Madrid

text: Benefiting from increasing prosperity in the 1980s and 1990s, the capital city of Spain consolidated its position as an important economic, cultural, industrial, educational, and technological centre on the European continent. During the mandate as Mayor of José María Álvarez del Manzano construction of traffic tunnels below the city proliferated. The following administrations, also conservative, led by Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón and Ana Botella launched three unsuccessful bids for the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics. By 2005, Madrid was the leading European destination for migrants from developing countries, as well as the largest employer of non-European workforce in Spain. Madrid was a centre of the anti-austerity protests that erupted in Spain in 2011. As consequence of the spillover of the 2008 financial and mortgage crisis, Madrid has been affected by the increasing number of second-hand homes held by banks and house evictions. The mandate of left-wing Mayor Manuela Carmena (2015–2019) delivered the renaturalization of the course of the Manzanares across the city.


title: Madrid

text: Since the late 2010s, the challenges the city faces include the increasingly unaffordable rental prices (often in parallel with the gentrification and the spike of tourist apartments in the city centre) and the profusion of betting shops in working-class areas, leading to an "epidemic" of gambling among young people.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid lies in the centre of the Iberian peninsula on the southern Meseta Central, 60 km south of the Guadarrama mountain range and straddling the Jarama and Manzanares river sub-drainage basins, in the wider Tagus River catchment area. With an average altitude of , Madrid is the second highest capital of Europe (after Andorra la Vella). There is a considerable difference in altitude within the city proper ranging from the around Plaza de Castilla in the north of city to the around "La China" wastewater treatment plant on the Manzanares' riverbanks, near the latter's confluence with the Fuente Castellana thalweg in the south of the city. The Monte de El Pardo (a protected forested area covering over a quarter of the municipality) reaches its top altitude () on its perimeter, in the slopes surrounding located at the north-western end of the municipality, in the Fuencarral-El Pardo district.


title: Madrid

text: The oldest urban core is located on the hills next to the left bank of the Manzanares River. The city grew to the east, reaching the (now the Paseo de la Castellana), and further east reaching the (now the M-30). The city also grew through the annexation of neighbouring urban settlements, including those to the South West on the right bank of the Manzanares.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen "Csa") with continental influences in the western half of the city transitioning to a semi-arid climate ("BSk") in the eastern half.


title: Madrid

text: Winters are cool due to its altitude, which is approximately above sea level and distance from the moderating effect of the sea. While mostly sunny, rain, sporadic snowfalls and frequent frosts can occur between December and February with cooler temperatures particularly during the night and mornings as cold winds blow into the city from surrounding mountains. Summers are hot and sunny, in the warmest month, July, average temperatures during the day range from depending on location, with maxima commonly climbing over and occasionally up to 40 °C during the frequent heat waves. Due to Madrid's altitude and dry climate, humidity is low and diurnal ranges are often significant, particularly on sunny winter days when the temperature rises in the afternoon before rapidly plummeting after nightfall. Madrid is among the sunniest capital cities in Europe.


title: Madrid

text: The highest recorded temperature was on 14 August 2021, with and the lowest recorded temperature was on 16 January 1945 with in Madrid. While on the airport, in the eastern side of the city, the highest recorded temperature was on 24 July 1995, at , and the lowest recorded temperature was on 16 January 1945 at . From 7 January to 9 January 2021, Madrid received the most snow in its recorded history since 1904; Spain's meteorological agency AEMET reported between of accumulated snow in its weather stations within the city.


title: Madrid

text: Precipitation is typically concentrated in the autumn and spring, and, together with Athens, which has similar annual precipitation, Madrid is the European capital with less annual precipitation. It is particularly sparse during the summer, taking the form of about two showers and/or thunderstorms during the season.


title: Madrid

text: At the metropolitan scale, Madrid features both substantial daytime urban cool island and nightime urban heat island effects during the hot season in relation to its surroundings, which feature thinly vegetated dry land.


title: Madrid

text: In the 17th century, the "viajes de agua" (a kind of water channels or "qanat") were used to provide water to the city. Some of the most important ones were the (1610–1621, sponsored by the Crown), the (1613–1620) and / (1617–1630), sponsored by the City Council. They were the main infrastructure for the supply of water until the arrival of the Canal de Isabel II in the mid-19th century.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid derives almost 73.5 percent of its water supply from dams and reservoirs built on the Lozoya River, such as the El Atazar Dam. This water supply is managed by the Canal de Isabel II, a public entity created in 1851. It is responsible for the supply, depurating waste water and the conservation of all the natural water resources of the Madrid region.


title: Madrid

text: The population of Madrid has overall increased since the city became the capital of Spain in the mid-16th century, and has stabilised at approximately 3 million since the 1970s.


title: Madrid

text: From 1970 until the mid-1990s, the population dropped. This phenomenon, which also affected other European cities, was caused in part by the growth of satellite suburbs at the expense of the downtown region within the city proper.


title: Madrid

text: The demographic boom accelerated in the late 1990s and early first decade of the 21st century due to immigration in parallel with a surge in Spanish economic growth.


title: Madrid

text: The wider Madrid region is the EU region with the highest average life expectancy at birth. The average life expectancy was 82.2 years for males and 87.8 for females in 2016.


title: Madrid

text: As the capital city of Spain, the city has attracted many immigrants from around the world, with most of the immigrants coming from Latin American countries. In 2020, around 76% of the registered population was Spain-born, while, regarding the foreign-born population (24%), the bulk of it relates to the Americas (around 16% of the total population), and a lesser fraction of the population is born in other European, Asian and African countries.


title: Madrid

text: Regarding religious beliefs, according to a 2019 Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS) survey with a sample size of 469 respondents, 20.7% of respondents in Madrid identify themselves as practising Catholics, 45.8% as non-practising Catholics, 3.8% as believers of another religion, 11.1% as agnostics, 3.6% as indifferent towards religion, and 12.8% as atheists. The remaining 2.1% did not state their religious beliefs.


title: Madrid

text: The Madrid metropolitan area comprises Madrid and the surrounding municipalities. According to Eurostat, the "metropolitan region" of Madrid has a population of slightly more than 6.271 million people covering an area of . It is the largest in Spain and the second largest in the European Union.


title: Madrid

text: The City Council ("Ayuntamiento de Madrid") is the body responsible for the government and administration of the municipality. It is formed by the Plenary ("Pleno"), the Mayor ("alcalde") and the Government Board ("Junta de Gobierno de la Ciudad de Madrid").


title: Madrid

text: The Plenary of the Ayuntamiento is the body of political representation of the citizens in the municipal government. Its 57 members are elected for a 4-year mandate. Some of its attributions are: fiscal matters, the election and deposition of the mayor, the approval and modification of decrees and regulations, the approval of budgets, the agreements related to the limits and alteration of the municipal term, the services management, the participation in supramunicipal organisations, etc.


title: Madrid

text: The mayor, the supreme representative of the city, presides over the "Ayuntamiento". He is charged with giving impetus to the municipal policies, managing the action of the rest of bodies and directing the executive municipal administration. He is responsible to the "Pleno". He is also entitled to preside over the meetings of the "Pleno", although this responsibility can be delegated to another municipal councillor. José Luis Martínez-Almeida, a member of the People's Party, serves as mayor since 2019.


title: Madrid

text: The Government Board consists of the mayor, deputy mayors and a number of delegates assuming the portfolios for the different government areas. All those positions are held by municipal councillors.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid is administratively divided into 21 districts, which are further subdivided into 131 neighbourhoods ("barrios"):


title: Madrid

text: Madrid is the capital of the Community of Madrid. The region has its own legislature and enjoys a wide range of competencies in areas such as social spending, healthcare, and education. The seat of the regional parliament, the Assembly of Madrid, is located at the district of Puente de Vallecas. The presidency of the regional government is headquartered at the Royal House of the Post Office at the very centre of the city, the Puerta del Sol.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid is the capital of Spain. The King of Spain, the country's head of state, has his official residence in the Zarzuela Palace. As the seat of the Government of Spain, Madrid also houses the official residence of the President of the Government (Prime Minister) and regular meeting place of the Council of Ministers, the Moncloa Palace, as well as the headquarters of the ministerial departments. Both the residences of the head of state and government are located at the northwest of the city. Additionally, the seats of the Lower and Upper Chambers of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales (respectively, the Palacio de las Cortes and the Palacio del Senado), also lie on Madrid.


title: Madrid

text: The Madrid Municipal Police ("Policía Municipal de Madrid") is the local law enforcement body, dependent on the "Ayuntamiento". As of 2018, it had a workforce of civil servants.


title: Madrid

text: The headquarters of both the Directorate-General of the Police and the Directorate-General of the Civil Guard are located in Madrid. The headquarters of the Higher Office of Police of Madrid ("Jefatura Superior de Policía de Madrid"), the peripheral branch of the National Police Corps with jurisdiction over the region also lies on Madrid.


title: Madrid

text: Little medieval architecture is preserved in Madrid, mostly in the Almendra Central, including the San Nicolás and San Pedro el Viejo church towers, the church of San Jerónimo el Real, and the Bishop's Chapel. Nor has Madrid retained much Renaissance architecture, other than the Bridge of Segovia and the Convent of Las Descalzas Reales.


title: Madrid

text: Philip II moved his court to Madrid in 1561 and transformed the town into a capital city. During the Early Hapsburg period, the import of European influences took place, underpinned by the monicker of "Austrian style". The Austrian style featured not only Austrian influences but also Italian and Dutch (as well as Spanish), reflecting on the international preeminence of the Habsburgs. During the second half of the 16th century, the use of pointy slate spires in order to top structures such as church towers was imported to Spain from Central Europe. Slate spires and roofs consequently became a staple of the Madrilenian architecture at the time.


title: Madrid

text: Stand out architecture in the city dating back to the early 17th century includes several buildings and structures (most of them attributed to Juan Gómez de Mora) such as the Palace of the Duke of Uceda (1610), the Monastery of La Encarnación (1611–1616); the Plaza Mayor (1617–1619) or the "Cárcel de Corte" (1629–1641), currently known as the Santa Cruz Palace. The century also saw the construction of the former City Hall, the Casa de la Villa.


title: Madrid

text: The Imperial College church model dome was imitated in all of Spain. Pedro de Ribera introduced Churrigueresque architecture to Madrid; the Cuartel del Conde-Duque, the church of Montserrat, and the Bridge of Toledo are among the best examples.


title: Madrid

text: The reign of the Bourbons during the eighteenth century marked a new era in the city. Philip V tried to complete King Philip II's vision of urbanisation of Madrid. Philip V built a palace in line with French taste, as well as other buildings such as St. Michael's Basilica and the Church of Santa Bárbara. King Charles III beautified the city and endeavoured to convert Madrid into one of the great European capitals. He pushed forward the construction of the Prado Museum (originally intended as a Natural Science Museum), the Puerta de Alcalá, the Royal Observatory, the Basilica of San Francisco el Grande, the Casa de Correos in Puerta del Sol, the Real Casa de la Aduana, and the General Hospital (which now houses the Reina Sofia Museum and Royal Conservatory of Music). The Paseo del Prado, surrounded by gardens and decorated with neoclassical statues, is an example of urban planning. The Duke of Berwick ordered the construction of the Liria Palace.


title: Madrid

text: During the early 19th century, the Peninsular War, the loss of viceroyalties in the Americas, and continuing coups limited the city's architectural development (Royal Theatre, the National Library of Spain, the Palace of the Senate, and the Congress). The Segovia Viaduct linked the Royal Alcázar to the southern part of town.


title: Madrid

text: The list of key figures of madrilenian architecture during the 19th and 20th centuries includes authors such as Narciso Pascual y Colomer, Francisco Jareño y Alarcón, Francisco de Cubas, Juan Bautista Lázaro de Diego, Ricardo Velázquez Bosco, Antonio Palacios, Secundino Zuazo, Luis Gutiérrez Soto, and Alejandro de la Sota.


title: Madrid

text: From the mid-19th century until the Civil War, Madrid modernised and built new neighbourhoods and monuments. The expansion of Madrid developed under the Plan Castro, resulting in the neighbourhoods of Salamanca, Argüelles, and Chamberí. Arturo Soria conceived the linear city and built the first few kilometres of the road that bears his name, which embodies the idea. The Gran Vía was built using different styles that evolved over time: French style, eclectic, art deco, and expressionist. However, Art Nouveau in Madrid, known as "Modernismo" did also develop at the turn of the century, in concert with its appearance elsewhere in Europe, including Barcelona and Valencia. Antonio Palacios built a series of buildings inspired by the Viennese Secession, such as the Palace of Communication, the Círculo de Bellas Artes, and the Río de La Plata Bank (now Instituto Cervantes). Other notable buildings include the Bank of Spain, the neo-Gothic Almudena Cathedral, Atocha Station, and the Catalan art-nouveau Palace of Longoria. Las Ventas Bullring was built, as the Market of San Miguel (Cast-Iron style).


title: Madrid

text: Following the Francoist takeover that ensued the end of Spanish Civil war, architecture experienced an involution, discarding rationalism and, eclecticism notwithstanding, going back to an overall rather "outmoded" architectural language, with the purpose of turning Madrid into a capital worthy of the "Immortal Spain". Iconic examples of this period include the Ministry of the Air (a case of herrerian revival) and the Edificio España (presented as the tallest building in Europe when it was inaugurated in 1953). Many of these buildings distinctly combine the use of brick and stone in the façades. The Casa Sindical marked a breaking point as it was the first to reassume rationalism, although that relinking to modernity was undertaken through the imitation of the Italian Fascist architecture.


title: Madrid

text: With the advent of Spanish economic development, skyscrapers, such as Torre Picasso, Torres Blancas and Torre BBVA, and the Gate of Europe, appeared in the late 20th century in the city. During the decade of the 2000s, the four tallest skyscrapers in Spain were built and together form the Cuatro Torres Business Area. Terminal 4 at


title: Madrid

text: Terminal 4 is one of the world's largest terminal areas and features glass panes and domes in the roof, which allow natural light to pass through.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid has the second highest number of aligned trees in the world, with 248,000 units, only exceeded by Tokyo. Madrid's citizens have access to a green area within a 15-minute walk. Since 1997, green areas have increased by 16%. At present, 8.2% of Madrid's grounds are green areas, meaning that there are of green area per inhabitant, far exceeding the per inhabitant recommended by the World Health Organization.


title: Madrid

text: A great bulk of the most important parks in Madrid are related to areas originally belonging to the royal assets (including El Pardo, Soto de Viñuelas, Casa de Campo, El Buen Retiro, la Florida and the Príncipe Pío hill, and the Queen's Casino). The other main source for the "green" areas are the " owned by the municipality (including the Dehesa de la Villa, the Dehesa de Arganzuela or Viveros).


title: Madrid

text: El Retiro is the most visited location of the city. Having an area bigger than (350 acres), it is the largest park within the Almendra Central, the inner part of the city enclosed by the M-30. Created during the reign of Philip IV (17th century), it was handed over to the municipality in 1868, after the Glorious Revolution. It lies next to the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid.


title: Madrid

text: Located northwest of the city centre, the Parque del Oeste ("Park of the West") comprises part of the area of the former royal possession of the "Real Florida", and it features a slope as the height decreases down to the Manzanares. Its southern extension includes the Temple of Debod, a transported ancient Egyptian temple.


title: Madrid

text: Other urban parks are the Parque de El Capricho, the Parque Juan Carlos I (both in northeast Madrid), Madrid Río, the , the as well as gardens such as the Campo del Moro (opened to the public in 1978) and the Sabatini Gardens (opened to the public in 1931) near the Royal Palace.


title: Madrid

text: Further west, across the Manzanares, lies the Casa de Campo, a large forested area with more than (6.6 sq mi) where the Madrid Zoo, and the Parque de Atracciones de Madrid amusement park are located. It was ceded to the municipality following the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931.


title: Madrid

text: The Monte de El Pardo is the largest forested area in the municipality. A holm oak forest covering a surface over hectares, it is considered the best preserved mediterranean forest in the Community of Madrid and one of the best preserved in Europe. Already mentioned in the Alfonso XI's " from the mid-14th century, its condition as hunting location linked to the Spanish monarchy help to preserve the environmental value. During the reign of Ferdinand VII the regime of hunting prohibition for the Monte de El Pardo became one of full property and the expropriation of all possessions within its bounds was enforced, with dire consequences for the madrilenians at the time. It is designated as Special Protection Area for bird-life and it is also part of the Regional Park of the High Basin of the Manzanares.


title: Madrid

text: Other large forested areas include the Soto de Viñuelas, the and the . As of 2015, the most recent big park in the municipality is the Valdebebas Park. Covering a total area of , it is sub-divided in a forest park (the ), a periurban park as well as municipal garden centres and compost plants.


title: Madrid

text: After it became the capital of Spain in the 16th century, Madrid was more a centre of consumption than of production or trade. Economic activity was largely devoted to supplying the city's own rapidly growing population, including the royal household and national government, and to such trades as banking and publishing.


title: Madrid

text: A large industrial sector did not develop until the 20th century, but thereafter industry greatly expanded and diversified, making Madrid the second industrial city in Spain. However, the economy of the city is now becoming more and more dominated by the service sector. A major European financial center, its stock market is the third largest stock market in Europe featuring both the IBEX 35 index and the attached stock market (with the second most important index for Latin American companies).


title: Madrid

text: Madrid is the 5th most important leading Centre of Commerce in Europe (after London, Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam) and ranks 11th in the world. It is the leading Spanish-speaking city in terms of webpage creation.


title: Madrid

text: As the capital city of the Spanish Empire from 1561, Madrid's population grew rapidly. Administration, banking, and small-scale manufacturing centred on the royal court were among the main activities, but the city was more a locus of consumption than production or trade, geographically isolated as it was before the coming of the railways.


title: Madrid

text: The Bank of Spain is one of the oldest European central banks. Originally named as the Bank of San Carlos as it was founded in 1782, it was later renamed to Bank of San Fernando in 1829 and ultimately became the Bank of Spain in 1856. Its headquarters are located at the calle de Alcalá.


title: Madrid

text: The Madrid Stock Exchange was inaugurated on 20 October 1831. Its benchmark stock market index is the IBEX 35.


title: Madrid

text: Industry started to develop on a large scale only in the 20th century, but then grew rapidly, especially during the "Spanish miracle" period around the 1960s. The economy of the city was then centred on manufacturing industries such as those related to motor vehicles, aircraft, chemicals, electronic devices, pharmaceuticals, processed food, printed materials, and leather goods. Since the restoration of democracy in the late 1970s, the city has continued to expand. Its economy is now among the most dynamic and diverse in the European Union.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid concentrates activities directly connected with power (central and regional government, headquarters of Spanish companies, regional HQ of multinationals, financial institutions) and with knowledge and technological innovation (research centres and universities). It is one of Europe's largest financial centres, and the largest in Spain. The city has 17 universities and over 30 research centres. It is the second metropolis in the EU by population, and the third by gross internal product. Leading employers include Telefónica, Iberia, Prosegur, BBVA, Urbaser, Dragados, and FCC.


title: Madrid

text: The Community of Madrid, the region comprising the city and the rest of municipalities of the province, had a GDP of €220B in 2017, equating to a GDP per capita of €33,800. In 2011 the city itself had a GDP per capita 74% above the national average and 70% above that of the 27 European Union member states, although 11% behind the average of the top 10 cities of the EU. Although housing just over 50% of the region's's population, the city generates 65.9% of its GDP. Following the recession commencing 2007/8, recovery was under way by 2014, with forecast growth rates for the city of 1.4% in 2014, 2.7% in 2015 and 2.8% in 2016.


title: Madrid

text: The economy of Madrid has become based increasingly on the service sector. In 2011 services accounted for 85.9% of value added, while industry contributed 7.9% and construction 6.1%. Nevertheless, Madrid continues to hold the position of Spain's second industrial centre after Barcelona, specialising particularly in high-technology production. Following the recession, services and industry were forecast to return to growth in 2014, and construction in 2015.


title: Madrid

text: Mean household income and spending are 12% above the Spanish average. The proportion classified as "at risk of poverty" in 2010 was 15.6%, up from 13.0% in 2006 but less than the average for Spain of 21.8%. The proportion classified as affluent was 43.3%, much higher than Spain overall (28.6%).


title: Madrid

text: Consumption by Madrid residents has been affected by job losses and by austerity measures, including a rise in sales tax from 8% to 21% in 2012.


title: Madrid

text: Although residential property prices have fallen by 39% since 2007, the average price of dwelling space was €2,375.6 per sq. m. in early 2014, and is shown as second only to London in a list of 22 European cities.


title: Madrid

text: Participation in the labour force was 1,638,200 in 2011, or 79.0%. The employed workforce comprised 49% women in 2011 (Spain, 45%). 41% of economically active people are university graduates, against 24% for Spain as a whole.


title: Madrid

text: In 2011, the unemployment rate was 15.8%, remaining lower than in Spain as a whole. Among those aged 16–24, the unemployment rate was 39.6%. Unemployment reached a peak of 19.1% in 2013, but with the start of an economic recovery in 2014, employment started to increase. Employment continues to shift further towards the service sector, with 86% of all jobs in this sector by 2011, against 74% in all of Spain. In the second quarter of 2018 the unemployment rate was 10.06%.


title: Madrid

text: The share of services in the city's economy is 86%. Services for business, transport & communications, property, and financial together account for 52% of the total value added. The types of services that are now expanding are mainly those that facilitate movement of capital, information, goods and persons, and "advanced business services" such as research and development (R&D), information technology, and technical accountancy.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid and the wider region's authorities have put a notable effort in the development of logistics infrastructure. Within the city proper, some of the standout centres include Mercamadrid, the logistics centre, the Villaverde's Logistics Centre and the Vicálvaro's Logistics Centre to name a few.


title: Madrid

text: Banks based in Madrid carry out 72% of the banking activity in Spain. The Spanish central bank, Bank of Spain, has existed in Madrid since 1782. Stocks & shares, bond markets, insurance, and pension funds are other important forms of financial institution in the city.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid is an important centre for trade fairs, many of them coordinated by IFEMA, the Trade Fair Institution of Madrid. The public sector employs 18.1% of all employees. Madrid attracts about 8M tourists annually from other parts of Spain and from all over the world, exceeding even Barcelona. Spending by tourists in Madrid was estimated (2011) at €9,546.5M, or 7.7% of the city's GDP.


title: Madrid

text: The construction of transport infrastructure has been vital to maintain the economic position of Madrid. Travel to work and other local journeys use a high-capacity metropolitan road network and a well-used public transport system. In terms of longer-distance transport, Madrid is the central node of the system of "autovías" and of the high-speed rail network (AVE), which has brought major cities such as Seville and Barcelona within 2.5 hours travel time. Also important to the city's economy is Madrid-Barajas Airport, the fourth largest airport in Europe. Madrid's central location makes it a major logistical base.


title: Madrid

text: As an industrial centre Madrid retains its advantages in infrastructure, as a transport hub, and as the location of headquarters of many companies. Industries based on advanced technology are acquiring much more importance here than in the rest of Spain. Industry contributed 7.5% to Madrid's value-added in 2010. However, industry has slowly declined within the city boundaries as more industry has moved outward to the periphery. Industrial Gross Value Added grew by 4.3% in the period 2003–2005, but decreased by 10% during 2008–2010. The leading industries were: paper, printing & publishing, 28.8%; energy & mining, 19.7%; vehicles & transport equipment, 12.9%; electrical and electronic, 10.3%; foodstuffs, 9.6%; clothing, footwear & textiles, 8.3%; chemical, 7.9%; industrial machinery, 7.3%.


title: Madrid

text: The construction sector, contributing 6.5% to the city's economy in 2010, was a growing sector before the recession, aided by a large transport and infrastructure program. More recently the construction sector has fallen away and earned 8% less in 2009 than it had been in 2000. The decrease was particularly marked in the residential sector, where prices dropped by 25%–27% from 2007 to 2012/13 and the number of sales fell by 57%.


title: Madrid

text: In 2018, the city received million tourists (53.3% of them international tourists). The biggest share of international tourists come from the United States, followed by Italy, France, United Kingdom and Germany. As of 2018, the city has 793 hotels, hotel places and hotel rooms. It also had, as of 2018, an estimated tourist apartments.


title: Madrid

text: The most visited museum was the "Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía", with 3.8 million visitors in the sum of its three seats in 2018. Conversely, the Prado Museum had 2.8 million visitors and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum visitors.


title: Madrid

text: By the late 2010s, the gentrification and the spike of tourist apartments in the city centre led to an increase in rental prices, pushing residents out of the city centre. Most of the tourist apartments in Madrid (50–54%) are located in the Centro District. In the Sol neighborhood (part of the latter district), 3 out of 10 homes are dedicated to tourist apartments, and 2 out of 10 are listed in AirBnB. In April 2019 the plenary of the "ayuntamiento" passed a plan intending to regulate this practice, seeking to greatly limit the number of tourist apartments. The normative would enforce a requirement for independent access to those apartments in and out of the street. However, after the change of government in June 2019, the new municipal administration plans to revert the regulation.


title: Madrid

text: A recent study placed Madrid 7th among 36 cities as an attractive base for business. It was placed third in terms of availability of office space, and fifth for ease of access to markets, availability of qualified staff, mobility within the city, and quality of life. Its less favourable characteristics were seen as pollution, languages spoken, and political environment. Another ranking of European cities placed Madrid 5th among 25 cities (behind Berlin, London, Paris and Frankfurt), being rated favourably on economic factors and the labour market as well as transport and communication.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid is an important film and television production hub, whose content is distributed throughout the Spanish-speaking world and abroad. Madrid is often seen as the entry point into the European media market for Latin American media companies, and likewise the entry point into the Latin American markets for European companies. Madrid is the headquarters of media groups such as Radiotelevisión Española, Atresmedia, Mediaset España Comunicación, and Movistar+, which produce numerous films, television shows and series which are distributed globally on various platforms. Since 2018, the region is also home to Netflix's Madrid Production Hub, Mediapro Studio, and numerous others such as Viacom International Studios. As of 2019, the film and television industry in Madrid employs 19,000 people (44% of people in Spain working in this industry).


title: Madrid

text: RTVE, the state-owned Spanish Radio and Television Corporation is headquartered in Madrid along with all its TV and radio channels and web services (La 1, La 2, Clan, Teledeporte, 24 Horas, TVE Internacional, Radio Nacional de España), Radio Exterior de España, Radio Clásica. The Atresmedia group (Antena 3, La Sexta, Onda Cero) is headquartered in nearby San Sebastián de los Reyes. The television network and media production company, the largest in Spain, Mediaset España Comunicación (Telecinco, Cuatro) maintains its headquarters in Fuencarral-El Pardo district. Together with RTVE, Atresmedia and Mediaset account for nearly the 80% of share of generalist TV.


title: Madrid

text: The Spanish media conglomerate PRISA (Cadena SER, Los 40 Principales, M80 Radio, Cadena Dial) is headquartered in Gran Vía street in central Madrid.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid (or the wider region) hosts the main TV and radio producers and broadcasters as well as the most of the major written mass media in Spain. It is home to numerous newspapers, magazines and publications, including "ABC", "El País", "El Mundo", "La Razón", "Marca", "¡Hola!", "Diario AS", "El Confidencial" and "Cinco Días". The Spanish international news agency EFE maintains its headquarters in Madrid since its inception in 1939. The second news agency of Spain is the privately owned Europa Press, founded and headquartered in Madrid since 1953.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid is considered one of the top European destinations concerning art museums. Best known is the Golden Triangle of Art, located along the Paseo del Prado and comprising three major museums: the Prado Museum, the Reina Sofía Museum, and the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum.


title: Madrid

text: The Prado Museum ("Museo del Prado") is a museum and art gallery that features one of the world's finest collections of European art, from the 12th century to the early 19th century, based on the former Spanish Royal Collection. It has the best collection of artworks by Goya, Velázquez, El Greco, Rubens, Titian, Hieronymus Bosch, José de Ribera, and Patinir as well as works by Rogier van der Weyden, Raphael Sanzio, Tintoretto, Veronese, Caravaggio, Van Dyck, Albrecht Dürer, Claude Lorrain, Murillo, and Zurbarán, among others. Some of the standout works exhibited at the museum include "Las Meninas", "La maja vestida", "La maja desnuda", "The Garden of Earthly Delights", "The Immaculate Conception" and "The Judgement of Paris".


title: Madrid

text: The Reina Sofía National Art Museum ("Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía"; MNCARS) is Madrid's national museum of 20th-century art and houses Pablo Picasso's 1937 anti-war masterpiece, "Guernica". Other highlights of the museum, which is mainly dedicated to Spanish art, include excellent collections of Spain's greatest 20th-century masters including Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Picasso, Juan Gris, and Julio González. The Reina Sofía also hosts a free-access art library.


title: Madrid

text: The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum ("Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza") is an art museum that fills the historical gaps in its counterparts' collections: in the Prado's case, this includes Italian primitives and works from the English, Dutch, and German schools, while in the case of the Reina Sofía, the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, once the second largest private collection in the world after the British Royal Collection, includes Impressionists, Expressionists, and European and American paintings from the second half of the 20th century, with over 1,600 paintings.


title: Madrid

text: The National Archaeological Museum of Madrid ("Museo Arqueológico Nacional") shows archaeological finds from Prehistory to the 19th century (including Roman mosaics, Greek ceramics, Islamic art and Romanesque art), especially from the Iberian Peninsula, distributed over three floors. An iconic item in the museum is the "Lady of Elche", an Iberian bust from the 4th century BC. Other major pieces include the "Lady of Baza", the "Lady of Cerro de los Santos", the "Lady of Ibiza", the "Bicha of Balazote", the "Treasure of Guarrazar", the "Pyxis of Zamora", the "Mausoleum of Pozo Moro" or a napier's bones. In addition, the museum has a reproduction of the polychromatic paintings in the Altamira Cave.


title: Madrid

text: The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando ("Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando") houses a fine art collection of paintings ranging the 15th to 20th centuries. The academy is also the headquarters of the Madrid Academy of Art.


title: Madrid

text: The Royal Palace of Madrid, a massive building characterised by its luxurious rooms, houses rich collections of armours and weapons, as well as the most comprehensive collection of Stradivarius in the world. The Museo de las Colecciones Reales is a future museum intended to host the most outstanding pieces of the Royal Collections part of the Patrimonio Nacional. Located next to the Royal Palace and the Almudena, Patrimonio Nacional has tentatively scheduled its opening for 2021.


title: Madrid

text: The Museum of the Americas ("Museo de América") is a national museum that holds artistic, archaeological, and ethnographic collections from the Americas, ranging from the Paleolithic period to the present day.


title: Madrid

text: Other notable museums include the National Museum of Natural Sciences (the Spain's national museum of natural history), the Naval Museum, the Convent of Las Descalzas Reales (with many works of Renaissance and Baroque art, and Brussels tapestries inspired by paintings of Rubens), the Museum of Lázaro Galdiano (housing a collection specialising in decorative arts, featuring a collection of weapons that features the sword of Pope Innocent VIII), the National Museum of Decorative Arts, the National Museum of Romanticism (focused on 19th century Romanticism), the Museum Cerralbo, the National Museum of Anthropology (featuring as highlight a Guanche mummy from Tenerife), the Sorolla Museum (focused in the namesake Valencian Impressionist painter, also including sculptures by Auguste Rodin, part of Sorolla's personal effects), or the History Museum of Madrid (housing pieces related to the local history of Madrid), the Wax Museum of Madrid, the Railway Museum (located in the building that was once the Delicias Station).


title: Madrid

text: Major cultural centres in the city include the Fine Arts Circle (one of Madrid's oldest arts centres and one of the most important private cultural centres in Europe, hosting exhibitions, shows, film screenings, conferences and workshops), the Conde Duque cultural centre or the Matadero Madrid, a cultural complex (formerly an abattoir) located by the river Manzanares. The Matadero, created in 2006 with the aim of "promoting research, production, learning, and diffusion of creative works and contemporary thought in all their manifestations", is considered the third most valued cultural institution in Madrid among art professionals.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid has been one of the great centres of Spanish literature. Some of the most distinguished writers of the Spanish Golden Century were born in Madrid, including Lope de Vega (author of "Fuenteovejuna" and "The Dog in the Manger"), who reformed the Spanish theatre, a project continued by Calderon de la Barca (author of "Life is a Dream"). Francisco de Quevedo, who criticised the Spanish society of his day, and author of "El Buscón", and Tirso de Molina, who created the character Don Juan, were born in Madrid. Cervantes and Góngora also lived in the city, although they were not born there. The Madrid homes of Lope de Vega, Quevedo, Gongora, and Cervantes still exist, and they are all in the Barrio de las Letras (Literary Neighborhood).


title: Madrid

text: Other writers born in Madrid in later centuries have been Leandro Fernandez de Moratín, Mariano José de Larra, Jose de Echegaray (Nobel Prize in Literature), Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Dámaso Alonso, Enrique Jardiel Poncela and Pedro Salinas.


title: Madrid

text: The "Barrio de las Letras" owes its name to the intense literary activity taking place there during the 16th and 17th centuries. Some of the most prominent writers of the Spanish Golden Age lived here, such as Lope de Vega, Quevedo, and Góngora, and it contained the Cruz and Príncipe Theatres, two of the most important in Spain. At 87 Calle de Atocha, on the northern end of the neighborhood, was the printing house of Juan de la Cuesta, where the first edition of Don Quixote was typeset and printed in 1604. Most of the literary routes are articulated along the Barrio de las Letras, where you can find scenes from novels of the Siglo de Oro and more recent works like "Bohemian Lights". Although born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, realist writer Benito Pérez Galdós made Madrid the setting for many of his stories; there is a giidebook to the Madrid of Galdós ("Madrid galdosiano").


title: Madrid

text: Madrid is home to the Real Academia Española, the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language, which governs, with statutory authority, over Spanish, preparing, publishing, and updating authoritative reference works on it. The academy's motto ("lema", in Spanish) states its purpose: it cleans the language, stabilizes it, and gives it brilliance ("Limpia, fija y da resplendor").


title: Madrid

text: Madrid is also home to another international cultural institution, the Instituto Cervantes, whose task is the promotion and teaching of the Spanish language as well as the dissemination of the culture of Spain and Hispanic America.


title: Madrid

text: The National Library of Spain is the largest major public library in Spain. The library's collection consists of more than 26,000,000 items, including 15,000,000 books and other printed materials, 30,000 manuscripts, 143,000 newspapers and serials, 4,500,000 graphic materials, 510,000 music scores, 500,000 maps, 600,000 sound recording, 90,000 audiovisuals, 90,000 electronic documents, more than 500,000 microforms, etc.


title: Madrid

text: The Madrilenian cuisine has received plenty of influences from other regions of Spain and its own identity actually relies in its ability to assimilate elements from the immigration.


title: Madrid

text: The "cocido madrileño", a chickpea-based stew, is one of the most emblematic dishes of the Madrilenian cuisine. The ' is another traditional winter specialty, usually made of cattle tripes. Other offal dishes typical in the city include the ' or grilled pig's ear. Fried squid has become a culinary specialty in Madrid, often consumed in sandwich as "bocata de calamares".


title: Madrid

text: Other generic dishes commonly accepted as part of the Madrilenian cuisine include the "potaje", the "sopa de ajo" (Garlic soup), the Spanish omelette, the ' (bream), ' (snails, sp. "Cornu aspersum") or the soldaditos de Pavía, the "patatas bravas" (consumed as snack in bars) or the "gallina en " (hen or chicken cooked with the yolk of hard-boiled eggs and almonds) to name a few.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid is an international hub of highly active and diverse nightlife with bars, dance bars and nightclubs staying open well past midnight. Madrid is reputed to have a "vibrant nightlife". Some of the highlight bustling locations include the surroundings of the Plaza de Santa Ana, Malasaña and La Latina (particularly near the ). It is one of the city's main attractions with tapas bars, cocktail bars, clubs, jazz lounges, live music venues and flamenco theatres. Most nightclubs liven up by 1:30 .and stay open until at least 6 .


title: Madrid

text: Nightlife flourished in the 1980s while Madrid's mayor Enrique Tierno Galván (PSOE) was in office, nurturing the cultural-musical movement known as "La Movida". Nowadays, the Malasaña area is known for its alternative scene.


title: Madrid

text: The area of Chueca has also become a hot spot in the Madrilenian nightlife, especially for the gay population. Chueca is known as gay quarter, comparable to The Castro district in San Francisco.


title: Madrid

text: The city has venues for performing alternative art and expressive art. They are mostly located in the centre of the city, including in Ópera, Antón Martín, Chueca and Malasaña. There are also several festivals in Madrid, including the Festival of Alternative Art, the Festival of the Alternative Scene.


title: Madrid

text: The neighbourhood of Malasaña, as well as Antón Martín and Lavapiés, hosts several bohemian cafés/galleries. These cafés are typified with period or retro furniture or furniture found on the street, a colourful, nontraditional atmosphere inside, and usually art displayed each month by a new artist, often for sale. Cafés include the retro café "Lolina" and bohemian cafés "La Ida", "La Paca" and "Café de la Luz" in Malasaña, "La Piola" in Huertas and "Café Olmo" and "Aguardiente" in Lavapiés.


title: Madrid

text: In the neighbourhood of Lavapiés, there are also "hidden houses", which are illegal bars or abandoned spaces where concerts, poetry readings and the famous Spanish "botellón" (a street party or gathering that is now illegal but rarely stopped).


title: Madrid

text: The Teatro Real is the main opera house in Madrid, located just in front of the Royal Palace, and its resident orchestra is the Madrid Symphony Orchestra. The theatre stages around seventeen opera titles (both own productions and co-productions with other major European opera houses) per year, as well as two or three major ballets and several recitals.


title: Madrid

text: The Teatro de la Zarzuela is mainly devoted to Zarzuela (the Spanish traditional musical theatre genre), as well as operetta and recitals. The resident orchestra of the theatre is the Community of Madrid Orchestra.


title: Madrid

text: Other concert venues for classical music are the Fundación Joan March and the Auditorio 400, devoted to contemporary music.


title: Madrid

text: The local feast par excellence is the Day of Isidore the Laborer ("San Isidro Labrador"), the patron Saint of Madrid, celebrated on 15 May. It is a public holiday. According to tradition, Isidro was a farmworker and well manufacturer born in Madrid in the late 11th century, who lived a pious life and whose corpse was reportedly found to be incorrupt in 1212. Already very popular among the madrilenian people, as Madrid became the capital of the Hispanic Monarchy in 1561 the city council pulled efforts to promote his canonization; the process started in 1562. Isidro was beatified in 1619 and the feast day set on 15 May (he was finally canonized in 1622).


title: Madrid

text: On 15 May the Madrilenian people gather around the and the (on the right-bank of the Manzanares) often dressed with checkered caps ("") and kerchiefs ("safos") characteristic of the chulapos and chulapas, dancing "chotis" and "pasodobles", eating "rosquillas" and "barquillos".


title: Madrid

text: The Madrilenian LGBT Pride has grown to become the event bringing the most people together in the city each year as well as one of the most important Pride celebrations worldwide.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid's Pride Parade began in 1977, in the Chueca neighbourhood, which also marked the beginning of the gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual rights movement after being repressed for forty years in a dictatorship. This claiming of LGBT rights has allowed the Pride Parade in Madrid to grow year after year, becoming one of the best in the world. In 2007, this was recognised by the European Pride Owners Association (EPOA) when Madrid hosted Europride, the Official European Pride Parade. It was hailed by the President of the EPOA as "the best Europride in history". In 2017, Madrid celebrated the 40th anniversary of their first Pride Parade by hosting the WorldPride Madrid 2017. Numerous conferences, seminars and workshops as well as cultural and sports activities took place at the festival, the event being a "kids and family pride" and a source of education. More than one million people attended the pride's central march. The main purpose of the celebration was presenting Madrid and the Spanish society in general as a multicultural, diverse, and tolerant community. The 2018 Madrid Pride roughly had 1.5 million participants.


title: Madrid

text: Since Spain legalised same-sex marriage in July 2005, Madrid has become one of the largest hot spots for LGBT culture. With about 500 businesses aimed toward the LGBT community, Madrid has become a "Gateway of Diversity".


title: Madrid

text: Despite often being labelled as "having no tradition" by foreigners, the Carnival was popular in Madrid already in the 16th century. However, during the Francoist dictatorship the carnival was under government ban and the feasts suffered a big blow. It has been slowly recovering since then.


title: Madrid

text: Other signalled days include the regional day (2 May) commemorating the Dos de Mayo Uprising (a public holiday), the feasts of San Antonio de la Florida (13 June), the feast of the Virgen de la Paloma (circa 15 August) or the day of the co-patron of Madrid, the Virgin of Almudena (9 November), although the latter's celebrations are rather religious in nature.


title: Madrid

text: The most important musical event in the city is the Mad Cool festival; created in 2016, it reached an attendance of during the three-day long schedule of the 2018 edition.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid hosts the largest "plaza de toros" (bullring) in Spain, Las Ventas, established in 1929. Las Ventas is considered by many to be the world centre of bullfighting and has a seating capacity of almost 25,000. Madrid's bullfighting season begins in March and ends in October. Bullfights are held every day during the festivities of San Isidro (Madrid's patron saint) from mid May to early June, and every Sunday, and public holiday, the rest of the season. The style of the plaza is Neo-Mudéjar. Las Ventas also hosts music concerts and other events outside of the bullfighting season. There is great controversy in Madrid with bullfighting.


title: Madrid

text: Real Madrid, founded in 1902, compete in La Liga and play their home games at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. The club is one of the most widely supported teams in the world and their supporters are referred to as "Madridistas" or "Merengues" (Meringues). Real's supporters in Madrid are mostly upper-class citizens and conservatives. The club was selected as the best club of the 20th century, being the fifth most valuable sports club in the world and the most successful Spanish football club with a total of 99 official titles (this includes a record 14 European Cups and a record 35 La Ligas).


title: Madrid

text: Atlético Madrid, founded in 1903, also compete in La Liga and play their home games at the Metropolitano Stadium. The club is well-supported in the city, having the third national fan base in Spain and their supporters are referred to as "Atléticos" or "Colchoneros" (The Mattressers). Atlético draws its support mostly from working class citizens. The club is considered an elite European team, having won three UEFA Europa League titles and reached three European Cup finals. Domestically, Atletico have won eleven league titles and ten Copa del Reys.


title: Madrid

text: Rayo Vallecano are the third most important football team of the city, based in the Vallecas neighborhood. They currently compete in La Liga, having secured promotion in 2021. The club's fans tend to be very left-wing and are known as "Bucaneers".


title: Madrid

text: Madrid hosted five European Cup/Champions League finals, four at the Santiago Bernabéu, and the 2019 final at the Metropolitano. The Bernabéu also hosted the Euro 1964 Final (which Spain won) and 1982 FIFA World Cup Final.


title: Madrid

text: Real Madrid Baloncesto, founded in 1931, compete in Liga ACB and play their home games at the Palacio de Deportes (WiZink Center). Real Madrid's basketball section, similarly to its football team, is the most successful team in Europe, with a record 10 EuroLeague titles. Domestically, they have clinched a record 36 league titles and a record 28 Copa del Reys.


title: Madrid

text: Club Baloncesto Estudiantes, founded in 1948, compete in LEB Oro and also play their home games at the Palacio de Deportes (WiZink Center). Until 2021, Estudiantes was one of only three teams that have never been relegated from Spain's top division. Historically, its achievements include three cup titles and four league runners-up placements.


title: Madrid

text: Madrid has hosted six European Cup/EuroLeague finals, the last two at the Palacio de Deportes. The city also hosted the final matches for the 1986 and 2014 FIBA World Cups, and the EuroBasket 2007 final (all held at the Palacio de Deportes).