Modern Madrid is enclosed by dreary suburbs: acres of high-rise concrete seemingly dumped without thought onto the dustiest parts of the plain. The great spread to suburbia was encouraged under Franco, who also extended the city northwards along the spinal route of the Paseo de la Castellana, to accommodate his ministers and minions during development extravaganzas of the 1950s and 1960s. Large, impressive, and unbelievably sterile, these constructions leave little to the imagination; but then, you're unlikely to spend much time in these parts of town.

In the centre, things are very different. The oldest streets at the very heart of Madrid are crowded with ancient buildings, spreading out in concentric circles which reveal the development of the city over the centuries. Only the cramped street plan gives much clue as to what was here before Madrid became the Habsburg capital (in 1561), but the narrow alleys around the Plaza Mayor are still among the city's liveliest and most atmospheric. Later growth owed much to the French tastes of the Bourbon dynasty in the eighteenth century, when for the first time Madrid began to develop a style and flavour of its own.

The early nineteenth century brought invasion and turmoil to Spain as Napoleon established his brother Joseph on the throne. Madrid, however, continued to flourish, gaining some very attractive buildings and squares. With the onset of the twentieth century, the capital became the hotbed of the political and intellectual discussions which divided the country; tertulias (political/philosophical discussion circles) sprang up in cafes across the city (some of them are still going) as the country entered the turbulent years of the end of the monarchy and the foundation of the Second Republic.

The Civil War , of course, caused untold damage, and led to forty years of isolation, which you can still sense in Madrid's idiosyncratic style. The Spanish capital has changed immeasurably, however, in the two and a half decades since Franco's death, guided by a poet-mayor, the late and much lamented Tierno Galvan. His efforts - the creation of parks and renovation of public spaces and public life - have left an enduring legacy, and were a vital ingredient of the movida madrilena , the "happening

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Madrid", with which the city broke through in the 1980s. The present local authorities have adopted a more restrictive attitude towards bar and club licensing and unfortunately there has been a tendency towards homogenization with the rest of Europe as franchised fast-food joints and coffee bars spring up all over the place. Nevertheless, in making the transition from provincial backwater to major European capital, Madrid has still managed to preserve its own stylish and quirky identity.