The Autonomous Autonomous Region of Madrid is a direct descendent of the previous province of the same name. The province of Madrid was born in the XVIII century during the reign of the Bourbons in Spain.. It was created as an answer to the great incoming population and due to the city becoming the Court of the Habsburgs in the XVI century.

Precisely when the XVI century was coming to an end, the city of Alcalá de Henares, its surroundings as well as the Royal Sites, were incorporated into the province of Madrid . Afterward, during the reign of Elizabeth II, the1833 fundamental provincial division took place and the present provincial limits of the territory of Madrid were established.

Roman Mosaic (Alcalá de Henares)

The Roman past of the territories of the Autonomous Region of Madrid are mainly represented by Complutum, which is the remote origin of the city of Alcalá de Henares placed on the bank of the Henares River, whose archeological museum is a must in any tour of this city which is Patrimony of Humanity.

Before the Muslim Era it is hard to speak about the history of the city of Madrid. Thanks to remains found in terraces on the Manzanares River as well as in other sites, such as the village of Ciempozuelos, we have knowledge of the presence of prehistoric human beings in our city.

In the capital, you can only see the remains of the Roman era in the museums, as nothing else has resisted the passage of time. Nevertheless, in many other places inside the Autonomous Region such as Titulcia, Cadalso de los Vidrios or Alcalá de Henares, remains can be seen.With respect to the territory of the Autonomous Region of Madrid of today, prehistoric sites have been found by the Henares and Manzanares Rivers. The Roman's crossing through the region was only that, a crossing, as the remains of their paved roads prove.

At the beginning of the Middle Ages, the activity of the Visigoths in the area was scarce as Toledo was their capital at the time. Inside Madrid's region only Alcalá de Henares and its episcopate stood out as centers of Visigothic activity. The city of Madrid, for which the province would later be named, would not arise until after the Muslim invasion of the Iberian peninsula.

On the second half of the IX century, Muhammad I, son of Abderramán II and fifth independent Emir of Córdoba, chose Madrid because of its priviledged location to become a defensive fortress against possible Christian attacks on Toledo. Later on, Madrid was definitively incorporated into the Christian Castillian-León domains as a consequence of Alphonse VI conquest in the year 1083. At that time, the city changed very little and Christians, Moors and Jews lived together peacefully.

Code of laws and the First Court of Madrid

In the year 1202 the first Code of Laws was given to Madrid by which the city's municipal life was regulated. At the time it was under the command of a governor and justice was ruled by

Until the reign of Alphonse XI the city halls did not exist. In the year 1309, the king Ferdinand IV opened the Court in Madrid for the first time with the attendance of his sons, the Archbishop of Toledo, the nobility and the members of the councils of the different cities.

From that year on, Madrid was the meeting point of the Castillian Court on several occasions, including the ones presided over by Alphonse XI in 1327. In such meetings agreements were reached concerning different topics, such as that noone could fulfil two different occupations in the Royal House and benefits could not be given to foreigners.

The name Madrid

Madrid must have been its first name. It was named before the Muslims were in Spain and it refers to the water found here and specifically to the stream that ran along the road called Segovia.

With the arrival of the Arabs, the name changed to Mayrit, which means "mother of water," referring to its abundance. After the conquest of the Christians over the Arabs, the Latin name Matrit prevailed.

Madrid grew when it became the seat of the Court of the Spanish kings in the middle of the XVI century, and definitively after the year 1606 during the reign of Philip III. But this growth did not take place in practically any other locality nearby with the exception of the university city of Alcalá de Henares.

The Dynasty of the Habsburgs forever linked the history of the region of Madrid to the history of Spain. Under this dynasty Madrid became the capital of the kingdom and it never changed-not even when a new dynasty, the Bourbons, arrived, nor when brief republican or dictatorial events took place.

Royal residence

Madrid was chosen as the temporal residence of the kings of Castilla, among them Peter I. It is Henry II who transformed the citadel, at the beginning ot the XV century, into a palace and ordered the construction of a palace site in El Pardo to be used as a summer residence as well as for royal hunting events.

The Catholic Kings entered Madrid celebrating their victory over Alphonse V of Portugal and over the supporters of Juana la Beltraneja in the year 1477.

Some very important works of art remain of the Catholic kings reign, such as the bishop's chapel in the church of Saint Andrew, the house of the Lujanes or the house of Cisneros in the square of the Villa. They set up a great number of regulations, bonds and resolutions, as well as a Court of Justice presided over by the kings which met weekly.

With the Catholic Kings Madrid experienced a great growth, thanks to tax exemptions and other priviledges dictated by them. At the end of the XV century, the city had 3,400 inhabitants living in a medieval quarter that began in the Alcázar, along the Cuesta de los Ciegos (Hill of the Blind), Vistillas, Puerta de Moros (Moor's Door), Cavas, Puerta Cerrada (Closed Door), Cava de San Miguel and Platerías, up to the square of the Caños del Peral.

During the reign of Charles I, while Madrid kept growing, the king chose Madrid for short stays. He was attracted to it by the great number of hunting species in the forests that were very close to the small city. Because of this he even constructed a hunting pavilion in the nearby Royal Grounds of El Pardo. Very little time remained until Madrid became the capital of the kingdom and the first city of the Empire.

Permanent seat of the Court

Until the year 1561 when Philip II established his residence in the city of Madrid, the king and his court did not have any established place to live, though Toledo was the most habitual. For this reason, at the beginning the choice of Madrid was thought of as provisional. In spite of this the capital of the empire "where the sun never set" remained in the city, due to its large forests and plentiful water. Besides, the monastery of El Escorial, which was under construction at the time, was located very close to the king's palace, the old Arab fortress. In fact, on the 13th of September of 1584, Philip II saw his greatest dream fulfiled: the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial.

The interest of King Philip II to construct a building in honour of the greatest glory of God and to the dynasty of the Habsburgs made the completion of this majestic building possible in a little longer than twenty years. A construction that, besides being a monastery, is a church, a royal palace, a library, a pantheon for the kings of Spain and a seminary. Madrid started growing a great deal in the year 1606, when it became the capital of Spain once again.

Under the protection of the new court, the city of Madrid grew a lot in a short time. From the three thousand homes located in Madrid at the time, it increased to 14,000 inhabitants in the year 1571 and up to 40,000 at the end of the XVI century.

During the XVIII and XIX centuries the significant absorption of the regional territory by the city of Madrid continued and even grew. Madrid already was the capital of a centralized State. Although, after the Civil War in the 1930' s, the industrial development of Madrid's area allowed the population and the limits of some of the surrounding cities to increase greatly.

Charles III and the Enlightenment

Charles III, who was the fourth Bourbon king of Spain, was inspired by the Enlightenment spirit, as well as by erudite despotism, with the aim of imposing his great fulfilments. He achieved the cleaning of the city as well as the reform of streets, squares and avenues. Industry, culture and the inhabitants of Madrid were going to the first to benefit from his rule.

In a short time the city saw new street lighting, a sewer system, paving and paper currency, thanks to the St. Charles Bank. Great urban works and reforms were designed and finished: the Puerta de Alcalá, Prado Street, the Botanic Garden, the Medicine College of St. Charles, the post office and customs buildings, and the Cibeles, Apolo, Neptune and Artichoke fountains. Also, the Royal Palace was completed as a definite residence for the Spanish kings.

Madrid enters the contemporary age

Two cities in the Autonomous Region, San Lorenzo de El Escorial and Aranjuez, both of them Royal Sites, were crucial sceneries of the War of Independence that served as the contemporary beginning of Spain. The main figures of this war were King Charles IV, his favourite Manuel Godoy, and his son, the future King Ferdinand VII. Móstoles, another regional city, would join the capital as an important figure in the events that took place in May, 1808, which was the real starting point of the Spanish contemporary age. Here the so called Independence war began, which was a mixture of revolution and war against the invader.

The 20^th Century

The XX century was, for the history of Spain, one of great conflicts and significant events. The regimes of Primo de Rivera and then of Francisco Franco, following a brief democratic experience and a civil war of fatal consequences in between, became the main characters of a very restless half century in Spanish history. Democracy, political parties, parliamentary regime, monarchy and stability during the last third of the century became the symbols of a modern country that opened its doors to the world.

The 21^st Century

Madrid and its surrounding Autonomous Region were given a more cosmopolitan air at the the end of the last century, aided by the increasing amount of tourists who visit both all year round. Madrid continues being the open city it has always been, welcoming immigrants from other Spanish regions, and its well-known night life has not lost any of its vitality. The modern Madrid grows farther north along Castellana Avenue, and its forgotten old quarters, the city's best artistic patrimony, are constantly restored. At the same time, the Autonomous Region's territories are integrated into this renewing process that both live through day by day.