Madrid de los Austrias on foot: a self-guided walk from the Puerta del Sol to the Royal Palace, with what is open each day

One of 2 self-guided walks in Madrid. See every walk.

In this guide

💡 The Short Version: Start at the Puerta del Sol, above Sol station, and finish at the Teatro Real, beside Ópera station: 2.6 km, about 35 minutes of walking and half a day with the stops. Walk it Tuesday to Saturday. The Museo de San Isidro is shut on Mondays, and on Sundays the cathedral dome is shut and the Royal Palace closes at 16:00. The Palace is €18; the cathedral nave is free, but its museum and dome are €8 and close at 14:30. The cathedral does not admit visitors during services. Or book a tour: the Welcome to Madrid walking tourad (from €27, 2.5 hours) starts beside the Plaza Mayor.

The route

Map of the walk numbered stops in walking order

Open the whole route in Google Maps - all the stops in walking order, set to walking directions, which is the version to put on your phone.

Madrid de los Austrias is the old Habsburg quarter, named for the dynasty whose court moved to Madrid in 1561. The route runs west along Calle Mayor from the Puerta del Sol to the Plaza Mayor, the market and the Plaza de la Villa, drops south to the Museo de San Isidro, and returns to the cathedral and the Royal Palace. Prices are the adult rate in euros from each operator.

Walk it with a guide

A guide adds the stories, and the three tours below all cover this quarter. None of them includes entry to the Palace unless it says so. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” prices, per person.

• Madrid: Welcome to Madrid Guided Walking Tourad, by Lexi Walking Tours: from €27, 4.9 stars from 2,428 reviews, 2.5 hours. The guide meets you beside the Fountain of Orpheus, a short walk from the Plaza Mayor.
• Madrid: Old Town & Poets District Guided Walking Tourad, by Artista-Tours: from €39, 4.7 stars from 211 reviews, 3 to 3.5 hours, in English, Spanish or German. It starts at the Lope de Vega house in the Barrio de las Letras, passes the Plaza Mayor, the Arco de Cuchilleros, the Plaza de la Villa and the cathedral, and ends in the Plaza de Oriente; entry to monuments is not included.
• Madrid: Royal Palace Skip-the-line Guided Tourad, by Golden Tour Guide: from €36, 4.8 stars from 5,626 reviews, 2 hours, with the Palace entry included. Madrid walking tours compares these with the tip-based Walkative walks.

1. Puerta del Sol

Free · open always · Sol station, metro lines 1, 2 and 3, is under the square

The semicircular square is where Calle Mayor, Calle del Arenal, Calle de Alcalá and Calle de Preciados meet, and it was once one of the city’s gates. The Casa de Correos on the south side was built from 1760 to 1768 as the main post office and is now the seat of the regional government. Its clock, a 19th-century addition, strikes the twelve chimes that people eat grapes to on 31 December. A stone slab on the pavement outside the main door is Kilometre 0, the point from which Spain’s main roads are measured. Leave by Calle Mayor, at the square’s west end.

• The bear and strawberry tree stand at the start of Calle de Alcalá, and a copy of La Mariblanca at the start of Calle del Arenal. The Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol has the detail on each.
• On 31 December the city controls access to the square through security filters: see New Year’s Eve in Madrid.

Detour: the Descalzas Reales

€9, guided visit only · Tuesday to Saturday 10:00 to 14:00 and 16:00 to 18:30, Sunday and holidays 10:00 to 15:00 · closed Mondays

The Descalzas Reales on the Plaza de las Descalzas. Photo: Luis García (Zaqarbal), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Skip this on a short day: the convent lies 400 m north-west of the Puerta del Sol and adds about 500 m to the walk, out by Calle de Tetuán and back by Calle del Arenal, plus an hour for the visit. It is a royal convent entered only on a guided tour. Tours bought online are in Spanish, and the operator lists an English tour at 12:00 from Tuesday to Sunday. The entrance is at Plaza de las Descalzas 3, and lockers and entry close an hour before the convent does.

• Book on Patrimonio Nacional’s site. If online tickets are sold out, the box office may still have some.
• Closed: every Monday, 1 and 6 January, 1 May, and 24, 25 and 31 December.
• Free hours: Wednesday and Thursday 16:00 to 18:30, for citizens of the European Union, residents and Latin American citizens only. Other visitors pay.

2. Plaza Mayor

Free · open always · Metro Sol, Ópera or Tirso de Molina

Walk 400 m along Calle Mayor and turn into the square. The Plaza Mayor was built under Philip III to a design by Juan Gómez de Mora, on the site of the old Arrabal market, and it has held festivities, bullfights, coronations and the occasional auto-da-fé of the Inquisition. After the fire of 1790 Juan de Villanueva rebuilt it, taking two storeys off the façades and closing it with nine arches. Philip III’s equestrian statue stands in the middle, and the Casa de la Panadería on the north side carries frescoes painted in 1992 and houses the Plaza Mayor tourist information centre and a shop of souvenirs by local artisans.

• The Arco de Cuchilleros is the best-known arch, with steep steps down to Calle de los Cuchilleros, where the knife makers worked.
• Events: the Christmas market runs from late November to 31 December 2026, and the Tamborrada drum parade is on Easter Sunday, 28 March 2027. See Christmas in Madrid.

3. Mercado de San Miguel

Free to enter · Sunday to Thursday 10:00 to 24:00, Friday, Saturday and holiday eves 10:00 to 01:00 · Plaza de San Miguel

Inside the Mercado de San Miguel. Photo: Steven Lek, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The market is 325 m from the square, by Calle Mayor and the Plaza de San Miguel. The Mercado de San Miguel is a covered market of more than 20 food and drink stands. Ópera (lines 2 and 5) and Sol are the nearest metro stations.

• Prices are set by each stand; there is no entry fee.
• Beyond the market: tapas in Madrid says what to order in the bars outside it, and Madrid food tours compares the guided ones, including a 2-hour market walk from €52.

4. Plaza de la Villa

Free · open always

The doorway of the Lujanes house on the Plaza de la Villa. Photo: Borjaanimal, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The Plaza de la Villa is 180 m on, along Calle Mayor. The streets Codo, Cordón and Madrid, which gave the medieval city its layout, lead off it, and three buildings from three centuries face the square. The 15th-century Lujanes house and tower, on the east side, is Gothic-Mudéjar and is the seat of the Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. The Casa de Cisneros on the south side is Plateresque, built in 1537. The Casa de la Villa on the west side is Baroque, finished in 1696, and was Madrid’s city hall until the mayor moved to the Cibeles Palace in 2007. A monument to Admiral Álvaro de Bazán, unveiled in 1891, stands in the garden at the centre.

• The original La Mariblanca, a 17th-century statue copied on the Puerta del Sol, is kept in the Casa de la Villa.
• Inside: the Casa de la Villa is reserved almost exclusively for the City Council, so this stop is the façades.

5. Museo de San Isidro

Free · Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 20:00, to 19:00 from 15 July to 15 September · closed Mondays · Plaza de San Andrés 2

The Renaissance courtyard of the Museo de San Isidro. Photo: Carlos Teixidor Cadenas, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Walk 380 m south to the Plaza de San Andrés, down Calle de Segovia and the Costanilla de San Pedro. The museum is in the house where Madrid’s patron saint, San Isidro, lived, and its display covers the city from prehistory to the arrival of the court in the 16th century, with Palaeolithic and Roman finds from the Manzanares and Jarama valleys and the Muslim foundation of Mayrit. Keep time for the Renaissance courtyard, the 17th-century chapel and the Miracle Well, where the saint is said to have saved his son from drowning.

• Guided tour: Wednesday at 12:00, with registration in advance through the museum’s form.
• Closed: 1 January, 1 May, 24, 25 and 31 December. On 15 May, San Isidro’s day, it opens at 9:30.
• Lunch: Casa Lucio is on Cava Baja, about 300 m away on foot.

6. Almudena Cathedral

Nave free, €1 donation suggested · daily 10:00 to 20:30, to 21:00 in July and August · museum and dome €8, Monday to Saturday 10:00 to 14:30

The cathedral is 600 m from San Andrés, back up to Calle Mayor, and faces the Palace across the Plaza de la Almudena. The nave is free, but it is closed to visitors during services, which the cathedral lists at 11:00 on weekdays, 12:00 and 19:00. The museum and dome are on a separate €8 ticket (€5 reduced), entered by the staircase of the main façade, and the operator recommends going between 10:00 and 11:00 or between 13:00 and 14:00. Photographs are allowed on the balconies and in the dome, and the audio guide runs on your own phone over the cathedral’s Wi-Fi.

• Closed: the museum and dome shut on every Sunday, holy days of obligation and days of special services, which the cathedral’s agenda lists.
• Security: on the first Wednesday of the month, when the Solemn Changing of the Guard takes place in the square, extended stays on the cathedral balcony are not allowed.
• The Muslim wall: beside the cathedral crypt, in the Parque del Emir Mohamed I, a stretch of more than 120 m of Madrid’s first wall survives, built between 850 and 866, with square towers.
• More: Royal Palace tickets also covers the cathedral museum and dome.

A stretch of Madrid’s Muslim wall. Photo: Luis García (Zaqarbal), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

7. Royal Palace

€18 self-guided, €26 guided · October to March Monday to Saturday 10:00 to 18:00, Sunday 10:00 to 16:00 · April to September to 19:00 on weekdays and Saturday

The Palace is 190 m on, across the Plaza de la Armería, and visitors enter through the cathedral’s esplanade. The venue and box office close an hour early, so be in an hour before the times above. The self-guided visit of the halls takes about 45 minutes, and the Royal Armoury about 30. Guided tours in English run on Monday to Saturday at 10:45, 11:45, 13:45 and 15:15, and on Sundays at 10:45, 11:45, 13:45 and 14:15. Large bags and rucksacks are discouraged while works continue.

• Book on Patrimonio Nacional’s site. Resellers sell the same entry for more. Royal Palace tickets has the prices and the rooms.
• The free slot on Monday to Thursday late afternoon is for citizens of the European Union, residents and Latin American citizens only. Everyone else pays €18.
• The Changing of the Guard is free, on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 11:00 to 14:00 outside the Puerta del Príncipe; the Solemn one is at 12:00 on the first Wednesday of the month except January, August and September (4 November and 2 December 2026).
• Closed: 1 and 6 January, 1 May and 25 December, and from 15:00 on 24 and 31 December.
• Free next to the Palace: the Mirador de la Cornisa, the terrace between the Palace and the cathedral, is open daily 12:00 to 22:00, and the Campo del Moro gardens below the Palace are open 10:00 to 18:00 from October to March and 10:00 to 20:00 from April to September.

8. Plaza de Oriente

Free · open always

The plaza lies between the east façade of the Palace and the Teatro Real, with the Monastery of the Encarnación on its north side. Narciso Pascual y Colomer designed it in 1844, and statues of Spanish kings stand along its gardens. The monument to Philip IV, an equestrian statue, is at the centre.

9. Teatro Real and Ópera station

Outside free · audio tour €10, 10:30 to 14:30, last entry 13:30 · guided tour in English €13, 10:15, not on Tuesdays

The Teatro Real, with the entrance to Ópera station at right. Photo: FouPic, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

The opera house is 290 m on, along Calle de Felipe V. It opened in 1850 to designs by Antonio López Aguado, closed in 1925, reopened as a concert hall in 1966 and became an opera house again in 1997. Ópera station, on metro lines 2 and 5 and the Ópera to Príncipe Pío branch, is at its door. Both tours are in the morning, so see the inside before you start the walk, or on another morning.

• The audio tour takes 50 minutes to an hour, on your own phone in English or Spanish, on the days listed on the theatre’s tours page. Be on time: nobody is admitted once it has started.
• The guided tour lasts 1 hour 15 minutes. English tours run at 10:15 every day except Tuesday, when the tour is in French.

Where to eat

Chocolatería San Ginés

Pasadizo de San Ginés 5 · open 24 hours, every day · chocolate and churros since 1894

Thick hot chocolate with churros, the fried dough sticks, in a two-floor café with marble tables. It is 150 m from the Plaza Mayor, on the way back from the Descalzas Reales detour. Twelve English-language publishers name it in where to eat in Madrid.

Sobrino de Botín

Calle de Cuchilleros 17, 160 m from the Plaza Mayor · book online at botin.es

Guinness World Records lists Botín as the oldest restaurant, open since 1725, in a house with its original wood-fired oven. The dish is roast suckling pig, €32.50 on the carta. It is a short detour down the Arco de Cuchilleros from the Plaza Mayor.

Casa Lucio

Calle de la Cava Baja 35 · lunch 13:00 to 16:00, dinner 20:00 to 23:30 · closed in August

A restaurant on the site of the old Mesón El Segoviano, near the Plaza de San Andrés. The lists attach its name to the huevos rotos, fried eggs over potatoes and ham. Stop here after the Museo de San Isidro.

The best day to go

The timing that works, Tuesday to Saturday: be at the Plaza Mayor for 10:00, the market when it opens at 10:00, the Plaza de la Villa by 10:45 and the Museo de San Isidro for 11:00. Eat near San Andrés, and go up the cathedral dome between 13:00 and 14:00, one of the two windows the operator recommends; the museum shuts at 14:30. The Palace comes after 14:30, and its box office takes visitors until an hour before closing. The Teatro Real tours finish too early for this order, so see the opera house on another morning, or start the route at Ópera.

What closes:

• Sundays: the cathedral museum and dome, and the Palace from 16:00.
• Mondays: the Museo de San Isidro and the Descalzas Reales.
• Services at the cathedral: the nave is closed to visitors at 11:00 on weekdays, 12:00 and 19:00.
• 1 and 6 January, 1 May and 25 December: the Palace.

What does not close: the streets and squares, among them the Plaza Mayor, the Plaza de la Villa and the Plaza de Oriente. A Monday still makes a good walk: the Palace, the market and the cathedral dome are open, and only the Museo de San Isidro is shut.

Getting there and back

• To the start: Sol station, on metro lines 1, 2 and 3, is under the Puerta del Sol, and Cercanías trains stop at Madrid-Sol. The ticket choices are in Madrid public transport.
• From the end: Ópera station, on lines 2 and 5, is at the Teatro Real. The Puerta del Sol is 500 m back along Calle del Arenal.
• In reverse: start at Ópera, take the Teatro Real tour at 10:15, reach the Palace for the 11:45 English tour and be at the cathedral dome before 14:30. The market is then a late lunch and the Plaza Mayor a last look.

What to do with the rest of the day

• The Barrio de las Letras: the Barrio de las Letras walk starts at the Puerta del Sol, where this walk begins, and ends at the Retiro. From Ópera it is 500 m to the start.
• The art: the Prado is free from 18:00, and Madrid in one or two days builds the days round the bookings.
• Guided walks: Madrid walking tours compares the guided and tip-based walks of this quarter.
• The squares in detail: the Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol covers the two squares, and free things to do in Madrid lists what else costs nothing.
• The tickets: what to book before you go to Madrid has the closed days for every sight, and where to stay in Madrid compares the areas.

Common questions

How long is the Madrid de los Austrias walk?

2.6 km from the Puerta del Sol to the Teatro Real, measured along the streets: about 35 minutes of walking. With a market stop, the cathedral dome and the Royal Palace it fills half a day, and the Museo de San Isidro and the Teatro Real tour add an hour each.

Is the Madrid de los Austrias walk free?

The streets, the squares, the Mercado de San Miguel, the Museo de San Isidro and the Almudena Cathedral nave (€1 donation suggested) cost nothing. The Royal Palace is €18, the cathedral museum and dome €8, the Teatro Real audio tour €10 and the Descalzas Reales detour €9.

What do I need to book for the walk?

Nothing is compulsory. The Royal Palace sells tickets on Patrimonio Nacional's site and the Teatro Real tours on the theatre's own site. The Descalzas Reales is entered only on a guided visit, and the Museo de San Isidro's Wednesday guided tour needs registration.

Which day is best for the Madrid de los Austrias walk?

Tuesday to Saturday. The Museo de San Isidro and the Descalzas Reales are shut on Mondays, and on Sundays the cathedral museum and dome are shut and the Royal Palace closes at 16:00. The Changing of the Guard is on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 11:00.

When can I visit the Almudena Cathedral?

The nave is open daily from 10:00 to 20:30 (to 21:00 in July and August) but closed to visitors during services, which the cathedral lists at 11:00 on weekdays, 12:00 and 19:00. The museum and dome are open Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 14:30.

Where does the walk start and finish?

It starts at the Puerta del Sol, above Sol station on metro lines 1, 2 and 3, and finishes at the Teatro Real, beside Ópera station on lines 2 and 5. The Barrio de las Letras walk starts at the Puerta del Sol, 500 m from Ópera.