Free audio walk in Madrid
Lavapiés and Embajadores
- 78 min
- 3.5 km
- 12 stops
- Free
Starts at Plaza de Lavapiés
About this walk
The neighbourhood where Madrid has always lived most closely packed together, from the tanners to the tobacco factory right up to today.
The stops
Walk them in order; each story plays when you reach its pin.
- 1Stop 1
Welcome to Lavapiés
Your introduction to the neighbourhood where Madrid lives packed closest together, and to a name nobody can quite explain.
- 2Stop 2
Teatro Valle-Inclán
A national theatre on a square that was long considered the wrong side of town.
Read the story - 3Stop 3
Mercado de San Fernando
A market hall from 1944, built on the grounds of a burned-out monastery, that reinvented itself.
Read the story - 4Stop 4
Escuelas Pías de San Fernando
A church that burned out in 1936 and stood as a ruin for seventy years, until a library was built inside it.
Read the story - 5Stop 5
La Corrala
The housing style Madrid built for its workers, with galleries running around a courtyard and thirty square metres per family.
Read the story - 6Stop 6
The Tobacco Factory
The factory where three thousand women rolled cigars and rose up in revolt in 1830. Inside, a second story is waiting for you.
Read the story - 7Stop 7
Ribera de Curtidores
The street of the tanners, the slope of the slaughterhouse, and the market that takes its name from them.
Read the story - 8Stop 8
The hero of Cascorro
The statue of a foundling who took on a mission with a can of petroleum and a rope tied around his waist.
Read the story - 9Stop 9
Iglesia de San Cayetano
A baroque facade that survived the fire of 1936 while everything behind it vanished.
Read the story - 10Stop 10
Calle del Ave María
The street where the neighbourhood gathers in the evening, and where wave after wave of residents stand side by side.
Read the story - 11Stop 11
The synagogue that never was
The story that Lavapiés was the Jewish quarter, and what happens when you hold it up against the evidence.
Read the story - 12Stop 12
Back at the Plaza de Lavapiés
The walk ends in the square where it began, with the metro running under your feet.
Read the story
Ready when you are
Walk Lavapiés and Embajadores with ROODS.
12 stops through Madrid, about 78 minutes. Open ROODS in your browser, walk to the first pin and the story plays.
- Stories on a map, with narrated audio
- Walk at your own pace, stop where you like
- Runs in your browser. An app is optional.
