Plaza de España

Don´t try to find any similarities with Piazza di Spagna in Rome. This one is a different plaza. It´s flanked to the east by Edificio de España (1953; 117m -384 ft) and to the north by Torre de Madrid (Madrid Tower; 142m -466 ft), two big and tall buildings but not very charming.

In the centre of the square you can find one of the favourite tourist spots: the statue of Cervantes (1927); at his feet, his two most inmortal characters: don Quixote and Sancho. Getting taken a picture there is mandatory!

And now some History: It was one of the locations where the French firing squads execute the madrileño rebels after the May the 2nd uprising in 1808. Francisco de Goya painted that scene in one of his masterpieces.

You can easily get there since Metro lines #3 and 10 have stops right in the plaza.

Foto I Wikipedia

Templo de Debod

Templo de Debod is placed in middle of a beautiful park and is one of the rare work on ancient Egyptian architecture (4th-century-BC) outside Egypt and the only one of its kind in Spain. It was built in honour of the god Amon of Thebes in the Nubian desert. According to the legend the god Isis gave birth to Horus in this very temple.

In 1960, due to the construction of the Great Dam of Aswan and the consequent threat posed to several monuments and archeological sites, UNESCO made an international call to save this rich historical patrimony from the rising waters of Lake Nasser. As a sign of gratitude for the help provided by Spain in saving the temples of Abu Simbel, the Egyptian state donated the Temple of Debod to Spain in 1968. The temple was sent block by block to Madrid in 1970.

The temple was rebuilt in one of the most beautiful parks in Madrid, very close to Plaza de España, the site of a former army barracks destroyed during the Civil War, and opened to the public in 1972.

Picture I Wikipedia