Walls of Madrid

Plan of the different Walls of Madrid, published in 1847 in the Semanario Pintoresco Español.
Madrid with its walls (red line) in 1831.

The Walls of Madrid (Spanish: cerca de Madrid, tapia de Madrid) are the five successive sets of walls that surrounded the city of Madrid from the Middle Ages until the end of the 19th century. Some of the walls had a defensive or military function, while others made it easy to tax goods entering the city. Towards the end of the 19th century the demographic explosion that came with the Industrial Revolution prompted urban expansion throughout Spain. Older walls were torn down to enable the expansion of the city under the grid plan of Carlos María de Castro.[1][2]

  1. ^ Costa, Frank J.; Noble, Allen G.; Pendeleton, Glenna (1991). "Evolving planning systems in Madrid, Rome, and Athens". GeoJournal. 24 (3): 294. doi:10.1007/BF00189030. S2CID 154817646. Archived from the original on 24 March 2022. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  2. ^ Antonio Ponz (1782). Viage de España (in Spanish). Madrid. p. 220. Archived from the original on 21 April 2022. Retrieved 24 March 2022.