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
Madrid on 16 January 1945 at . These records were registered at the airport, in the eastern side of the city. Precipitation is concentrated in the autumn and spring, and, together with Athens which has similar annual precipitation, is the driest capital in Europe. It is particularly sparse during the summer, taking the form of about two showers and/or thunderstorms during the season. Madrid derives almost 73.5 percent of its water supply from dams and reservoirs built on the Lozoya River, such as the El Atazar Dam, which was built in 1972 and inaugurated by Francisco Franco. This water supply is