Salamanca district (Madrid)

The Salamanca district, also frequently referred to as the Salamanca neighborhood, is the 4th of the 21 districts that make up Madrid, Community of Madrid, Spain. It owes its name to its builder, the Malaga-born José de Salamanca y Mayol, Marquis of Salamanca, who promoted and partly built it in the 19th century.

It has become one of the most important commercial areas of the city and one of the districts with the highest standard of living in Spain with the largest luxury shopping area in Madrid around the Golden Mile, which includes the streets Serrano, Claudio Coello, Lagasca and Ortega y Gasset. It has a population of 147,707 inhabitants according to the 2008 INE census. As of 2024, it is the district with the most expensive houses per square meter in all of Spain.

Subdivision

The district is administratively divided into 6 wards (Barrios): Castellana, Fuente del Berro, Goya, Guindalera, Lista, Recoletos.

Boundaries

Its geographical location is defined by the bordering streets:

To the west, Doctor Marañón, Paseo de la Castellana, Emilio Castelar roundabout, Enrique de la Mata Gorostizaga overpass, Plaza de Colón and Paseo de Recoletos (bordering the districts of Chamberí and Centro).
To the south, Plaza de Cibeles, Calle Alcalá, Plaza de la Independencia, Calle O’Donnell and M-23 (bordering the districts of Centro, Retiro and Moratalaz).
To the east, M-30 motorway (bordering the district of Ciudad Lineal).
To the north, Calle María de Molina, Avenida de América and A-2 – E-90 (bordering the district of Chamartín).

History

In 1857, the government allowed the then Minister of Public Works and Transportation Claudio Moyano to expand the city (Plan Castro). Queen Isabella II allowed this in 1860 and the defensive walls were torn down in order to build the first Madrilian ensanche. Don José de Salamanca y Mayol, 1st Marquess of Salamanca, gave his name to the area because of his involvement in the project. It was completely urbanized by 1927.

Since then, the Salamanca district has been one of the most representative areas for bourgeois madrileños. Salamanca is in the outer area of the Rondas, where the neighborhoods of Guindalera and Fuente del Berro originated with more spontaneous urban development. Nowadays, the Salamanca district is one of the wealthiest areas in Madrid and some of its streets, such as Calle de Goya or Calle de Serrano, are some of the most expensive streets in Spain.

A significant number of diplomatic missions are in Salamanca, such as the Swiss embassy at Calle de Núñez de Balboa and C/ Goya, the French embassy on C/ Villalar, the United States embassy on C/ Serrano, and the Italian embassy on C/ Juan Bravo.

Salamanca is also home to the IE Business School (previously Instituto de Empresa) which is ranked among the top 10 business schools in the world.

Transport

Cercanías Madrid

The only two Madrid suburban train stations serving the district are the Recoletos and Nuevos Ministerios stations, located under Paseo de Recoletos and the other under Paseo de la Castellana, on the western edge of the district. These stations serve trains on lines C-1, C-2, C-7, C-8 and C-10, and the other serves trains on lines C-1, C-2, C-3, C-4, C-7, C-8 and C-10.

Madrid Metro

The district has the following metro services:

Line 2 serves the southern part of the district, running under Calle Alcalá. The stations it serves are Banco de España, Retiro, Príncipe de Vergara, Goya, Manuel Becerra and Ventas.
Line 4 runs under Paseo de Recoletos and the streets of Goya, Conde de Peñalver and Francisco Silvela, with stops at Alonso Martínez, Colón, Serrano, Velázquez, Goya, Lista, Diego de León and Avenida de América.
Line 5 runs through the heart of the district from east to west, serving the stations of Alonso Martínez, Rubén Darío, Núñez de Balboa, Diego de León and Ventas.
Line 6 serves the Francisco Silvela-Doctor Esquerdo axis with the stations Nuevos Ministerios, República Argentina, Avenida de América, Diego de León, Manuel Becerra, O’Donnell and Sainz de Baranda.
Line 7 runs along the north side of the district, under María de Molina street, serving it with the Avenida de América and Gregorio Marañón stations. It also serves the La Guindalera neighbourhood with the Cartagena and Parque de las Avenidas stations.
Line 8 does not run under the district itself, but stops at the Nuevos Ministerios station on the west corner of the district.
Line 9 runs under Príncipe de Vergara, one of the main arteries in the area, stopping at Cruz del Rayo, Avenida de América, Núñez de Balboa, Príncipe de Vergara, Ibiza and Sainz de Baranda.
Line 10 does not run under the district itself, but stops at the Alonso Martínez, Gregorio Marañón and Nuevos Ministerios stations, on the west corner of the district.