Madrid Madrid Madrid (, ) is the capital of Spain and the largest municipality in both the Community of Madrid and Spain as a whole. The city has almost 3.2 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.5 million. It is the third-largest city in the European Union (EU), smaller than only London and Berlin, and its monocentric metropolitan area is the third-largest in the EU, smaller only than those of London and Paris. The municipality covers . Madrid lies on the River Manzanares in the centre of both the country and the Community of Madrid (which comprises the
Centro (Madrid) Centro (Madrid) Centro is the central district of the city of Madrid, Spain. It is approximately 5.23 km² (2.02 sq mi) in size. It has a population of 149,718 people and a population density of 28,587/km² (74,040/sq mi). The Centro district of Madrid is the oldest section of the city. Evidence of a stable settlement dates back to Spain's Muslim period. In the second half of the 9th century, the emir of Córdoba, Muhammad I (852–886), built a fortress on a promontory beside the river, the modern-day location of the Royal Palace. Its purpose was to watch the passes of