The main street of cosmopolitan Madrid is Gran Via street. It stretches from Calle de Alacala to Plaza Espana, located in the central part of the city. Like all major streets in the metropolis, it contains a large number of shops, boutiques, great restaurants, coffee bars, souvenir shops and the like. This is a street that provides a great choice for shopaholics, there are Mango, Zara, Primark, Nike and other famous department stores.
Gran Via is also for those who like to enjoy great food and some good drinks. It is one of the most important places for shopping, but also for taking a walk. It also has numerous accommodation facilities, theaters, but also some significant and interesting buildings, so the Metropolis building, as well as Telefonica, found their place in this street. Telefonica is characterized by its height, and at the time it was built in 1929, it was the tallest building in Europe.
Certainly, apart from the above, what adorns Gran Via Street and makes it special are its architectural styles: Viennese Art Nouveau, Plateresque, Art Deco.
The project, which involved the construction of a main street in the city center, required the demolition of numerous buildings that were located on that place. For that reason, the project was named "ax strike on the map". Although the plan and the project itself were created much earlier than the works began, the media made fun of the project and called it "Gran Via" translated as "The Great Road". The project was approved in 1904, and the works began six years after that, and the very end of the project works on the Street was completed in 1929. The pedestrian lane was upgraded in some parts in March 2018, in order to extend the already existing sidewalks.
We can say that the Grand Via has hustle and bustle and life similar to that on Fifth Avenue in New York, and you will often hear that the Gran Via is "Madrid’s Broadway".
Author of the text:
Maja Glavaš, Bachelor with Honours in Communicology. Works in Tourism.
Contact: [email protected]; instagram: travel_europe1
