The irresistible Gran Vía

If we had to pick just one street to represent what Madrid is today, it would be the Gran Vía. One of the city's main arteries, lined with some of the most emblematic buildings of its modern history.

More than a century has gone by since construction began on 4 April 1910, and in that time the street has managed to condense the main hallmarks of today's Madrid. Eclectic, electric, touristy, commercial and a bit of a rogue, Gran Vía expresses the essence of the city.

An irresistible energy for artists, who have painted it from every angle and in all its main symbols. Whether it's the well-known Edificio Metrópolis, at the start of the street numbering, with its unmistakable black slate roof and gilded statues. Or the cinematic Schweppes neon sign looking onto Plaza de Callao.

Cinema, as well as art, has left us some of the street's most iconic images. Who could forget Eduardo Noriega running down a startling Gran Vía, completely deserted, in Alejandro Amenábar's film 'Open Your Eyes'.

Always packed, the Gran Vía has two faces: the daytime one, with its tourists, people shopping or strolling, madrileños on their way to work… and the night-time one, when under the neon lights and car headlights it shows its party-loving side.

In fact, it splits Madrid between the more castizo or traditional part, represented by the Puerta del Sol and the Barrio de las Letras, and the more alternative or underground one, the Chueca and Malasaña neighbourhoods.

Madrid is very much a city of neighbourhoods. People identify with the area where they live pretty intensely. Until they get to Gran Vía. No article. You go to Gran Vía, you meet your friends at Gran Vía. It's not just a street, it's the street. There Madrid feels like a city.

A city where people always walk fast. Even with no reason to. But on Gran Vía even madrileños take a moment to look up and take in its architecture: the Hotel de las Letras, the Telefónica Building (Spain's first skyscraper), the Palacio de la Música and the Palacio de la Prensa, or the Cines Avenida, in whose basement the historic Pasapoga nightclub once was.

At street level, now, there are mostly shops, though some emblematic places survive, like Museo Chicote, founded in 1931 “to mix drinks, lives and opinions… so that opinions, lives and drinks live together”, as you can read on the door, and once walked through by Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly, who on their endless nights out in Madrid couldn't help stopping by Gran Vía.

Travel through Madrid without leaving home with the artworks of our artists and discover a city full of art: https://www.artelista.com/tags/madrid

And what about you, what do you think? Does Madrid inspire you? Tell us which places or which cities inspire you.