Medieval Madrid: A Guide to the City’s Muslim Past

(27 reviews)

Madrid, Spain audio tour: Medieval Madrid: A Guide to the City’s Muslim Past

This is a 1.4mi walking tour

It takes an average of 60 mins to complete.

Madrid, Spain

Spain

$7.99

Access all 40 locations offline with the VoiceMap app

Buy for a Group

Reviews

About the Tour

Madrid’s Islamic heritage comes alive in its oldest neighbourhoods’ winding streets. On this walking tour, you’ll see medieval walls, hidden towers, and forgotten sites that tell the story of Mayrit – Madrid’s original Arabic name.

Starting at the Monument to Felipe IV in Plaza de Oriente, you’ll peel back layers of history to reveal the fascinating Muslim foundations of Europe’s only capital city to be founded by an Islamic ruler. You’ll see grand royal monuments and the underground archaeological Remains of the Tower of Bones. And you’ll learn how a ninth-century Muslim ruler established a watchtower that would evolve into the modern metropolis, and how subsequent Christian kings attempted to obscure this inconvenient historical truth.

As you make your way to the charming Plaza de los Carros where the tour ends, you’ll wander through the charming cobblestone streets of the former Morería (Muslim quarter). You’ll explore how Christians, Muslims, and Jews coexisted through centuries of shifting power dynamics, leaving their mark on everything from architecture and art to language and cuisine.

On this 90-minute walk through Madrid’s overlooked medieval heritage, you’ll have the chance to:

Visit Madrid’s oldest church, San Nicolás el Real (the church of Saint Nicholas), whose tower displays the distinctive horseshoe arches and architectural elements borrowed from mosques
Trace the impressive medieval walls of both Muslim Mayrit and Christian Madrid, built of flint, giving rise to part of the city’s motto: ”My walls are made of fire”
Take in the hidden Plaza de Alamillo, once the gathering place for the self-governing Muslim community after the Christian conquest
See the former Morería district, where Madrid’s Muslim population continued to live and work after the Christian reconquest
Learn how Muslim artisans shaped Madrid’s architecture through the distinctive Mudéjar style, still visible in surviving medieval towers
Stroll through the historic Garden of the Prince of Anglona, restored with elements of both Roman and Andalusian garden design
Find traces of underground qanats (waterways) that gave Madrid its name, reflecting the advanced hydraulic engineering of its Muslim founders

By the end of this Madrid tour, you’ll see how the city’s Islamic roots continue to influence its present, from its architecture and urban layout, to its cuisine and even its language.

Tour Producer

Felicity Hughes

4 tours

Felicity Hughes is a British writer and tour guide based in Madrid. Back in 2017, she started a history blog called The Making of Madrid. The idea was to help readers understand the forces that have shaped Spain's capital, following its transformation from a medieval medina to a glittering metropolis. The project was a hit, and she has now become a well-known local expert, with articles published in The Guardian, Al Jazeera, the Financial Times, and Time Out. She also writes extensively for Lonely Planet and is the lead writer for their Madrid guides.
Drawing on years of research and a deep love for the city, Felicity brings Madrid's layered history to life through immersive, story-driven tours. In 2024, she launched a podcast that helps listeners get under the skin of the city, so if you want to get a preview of what you'll hear on a tour, tune into The Making of Madrid on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Preview Location

Location 15

Muslim walls

Please go up the metal ramp once you've crossed the street and stop when you get to the railings overlooking the garden.

This is the Parque del Emir Mohammed I of Cordoba, named after the founder of the settlement of Mayrit. Can you see the wall rising above the garden?
... Please go up the metal ramp once you've crossed the street and stop when you get to the railings overlooking the garden.

This is the Parque del Emir Mohammed I of Cordoba, named after the founder of the settlement of Mayrit. Can you see the wall rising above the garden?

These are the walls of the Almudena or citadel. Notice both the Virgin of the Almudena and the cathedral take their names from this Arabic word! The walls are, like the Tower of Bones you saw in the car park, made from flint with a filler of lime. Part of the 12th-century motto of Madrid goes: My walls are made of fire, and this refers to the fact that arrows striking the wall would spark in the dark during an attack.

The walls are about 14 feet, that's some four metres tall. They were really hard to scale, and I'd love to know how Alfonso VI made it in. Certainly, the fact that the Umayad Emirate of Cordoba had now broken up into smaller warring kingdoms made things much easier for him!

If you peek into the garden, you might see a small population of stray cats.

During weekdays, they live mostly unmolested as these gardens are closed to the public Monday-Friday. A curious decision along with the lack of signposting that leads some to suppose that Madrid's current local government are none too keen on the city's Muslim past. But let's get back to the cats. In Spanish, a cat is a gato. But it's also the word for a Madrilenian who can trace their lineage back two generations. Legend has it that Alfonso VI's troops were so nimble that they climbed the walls of the city like cats. Hence, Madrilenos are gatos, though it's equally likely that the name might be down to the fact that citizens like to stay out all night.

Actual gatos who can trace their lineage back so far are few and far between. I've lived here for more than a decade and have only met three. This is because the city has grown hugely in recent years, and many people here have parents who moved here from the countryside during the 60s and 70s. Now the population is swelling again. There are about 3 million people in the city proper and 7 million people in the wider Comunidad de Madrid. One out of every seven now hails from Latin American countries. This makes for a city that's incredibly welcoming to outsiders. If you've been in the city for a decent amount of time, you can consider yourself a Madrilenian.

Incidentally, if you want to know more about the evolution of the city walls, there's a bronze map beside you that you can peruse, and in the Museo de San Isidro at the end of the door, there's a great model and audiovisual display on the topic.

When you're ready, retrace your steps along Calle Mayor back to the crossroad. Read More

View locations and route

How VoiceMap Works

Focus on your surroundings, not the screen

The VoiceMap app uses GPS to play audio automatically, at the right time and place, so you can focus on your surroundings, not the screen.

Follow a route with turn-by-turn-directions

VoiceMap tours follow a route from a fixed starting point. That lets us give turn-by-turn directions and use context to tell a better story.

Resume playback to go at your own pace

If you'd like to stop for a drink or go into a museum, end your tour then use the Resume feature to pick up exactly where you left off.

Listen as many times as you like

You can listen to your tours as often as you like using both the VoiceMap app and website.

Take virtual tours anywhere, like a podcast

Select Virtual mode in the VoiceMap app to listen to tours like a podcast - at home or in transit.

Buy for less on voicemap.me and sync

Once you've purchased a tour, it's added to your VoiceMap library. To access it in the app, just sign in using the same account.

Do tours without paying for data

Tours work offline, so you don't have to pay roaming fees. Just download them over WiFi before you get started.

Major Landmarks

Monument to Felipe IV
Remains of the Tower of Bones
Plaza de Ramales calle de la cruzada
Restos arqueológicos de la Iglesia de San Juan
Church of Saint Nicholas
Restos de La antigua Iglesia de la Almudena
St Mary Royal of the Almudena
Imagen muralla Santa María de la Almudena
Information point about the Muslim Walls
Bailén Viewpoint
Corral de la Morería
Sulis Hammam & Spa
Capilla de Nuestra Señora y de San Juan de Letrán
Garden of the Prince of Anglona
Church of San Pedro el Viejo
Museo de San Isidro
Qanat andalusí

View all

Getting There

Route Overview

VoiceMap tours follow a route from a set starting point. It’s how we give turn-by-turn directions and tell a story greater than the sum of its parts.

Start location
Pl. de Ote., Centro, 28013 Madrid, Spain
Total distance

2km
Final location
Carrera de San Francisco, Centro, 28005 Madrid, Spain
Distance back to start location

720.59m

Directions to Starting Point

The tour begins by the statue of Felipe IV, which stands between the Palacio Real and the Teatro Real. Easily accessible from Opera metro, simply round the building of the Teatro Real to see the statue rising up from the hedged gardens in the Plaza de Oriente.

Show Directions

Gift vouchers

Buy tours for friends and family who delight in discovery

Buy Now

Buy for a group

Get 15% to 50% off when you buy for a group

Buy Now

License this tour

Adapt this tour to use your brand and suit your guests

Find out more

Tips

Places to stop along the way

If you're doing the tour on a weekend, you will be able to access the Parque del Emir Mohamed but be warned it's a steep climb down and up again to rejoin the tour. The Jardin del Principe de Anglona is perhaps a better place to take a load off later on in the tour. The tour ends by the Museo de San Isidro, which is a great place to learn more about medieval Madrid.

Best time of day

Try to complete the tour before sunset as the locations by the viaduct are a little isolated. If doing the tour in summer aim to finish by 2pm at the very latest as temperatures can be unbearably hot in July and August.

Precautions

There are a few steep hills to climb and go down in the last part of the tour, so you will need to be reasonably fit to complete the route.

Get The App

Download tours to use them offline

Listen hands-free with GPS playback

Get turn-by-turn directions

Scan the QR Code

“This app has become my go-to app for audio tours. I pretty much use it for every trip and it works wonderfully. I highly recommend VoiceMap for travelers to truly experience cities.”

App Store Review

“Great app. walk around at your own pace, stop where you want, move on or speed up when you want. Read the script before you go or during the commentary, speed it up or replay it. Repeat the tour whenever you like.”