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
Siege of Madrid as part of the Nationalist's campaign to take the capital: in March, at Guadalajara and at the end of December at Teruel, both north east of Madrid. In the first of these battles, in early 1937 Franco tried to cross the river Jarama to cut off the road between Madrid and Valencia, where the Republicans had moved their government. The battle's results were inconclusive. Franco's troops managed to get onto the east bank of the Jarama but failed to sever communications between Madrid and Valencia. Casualties on both sides were heavy, estimates of their losses ranging from 6,000 to 20,000