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Leaving Parque del Retiro at the northwest corner takes you to the Plaza de la Independencia, in the centre of which is one of the two remaining gates from the old city walls. Built in the late eighteenth century, the Puerta de Alcala was the biggest in Europe at that time and, like the bear and bush, has become one of the city's monumental emblems. South from here, you pass the Museo de Artes Decorativas (Tues-Fri 9.30am-3pm, Sat & Sun 10am-2pm; ?2.40, free on Sun; Metro: Banco de Espana/Retiro), which has its entrance on c/Montalban 12. The furniture and decorations here are not very thrilling but there are some superb azulejos and other decorative ceramics. A couple of blocks west, in a corner of the Naval Ministry at c/Montalban 2, is a Museo Naval (Tues-Sun 10.30am-1.30pm, closed mid-July to end of Aug; free; Metro: Banco de Espana), strong, as you might expect, on models, charts and navigational aids from or relating to the Spanish voyages of discovery. The army has its museum, the Museo del Ejercito , just to the south of here at c/Mendez Nunez 1 (Tues-Sun 10am-2pm; ?0.60, free on Sat; Metro: Retiro). The museum is likely to be moved to the Alcazar at Toledo in the future as the building features as part of the Prado extension plans. It is a traditional display, packed with arms and armour (including a sword of El Cid and conquistador breastplates), and models and memorabilia of various battles, from earliest times to the Civil War - in which Franco, here, remains the good guy. South again, past the Prado's Cason del Buen Retiro annexe (part of the original Retiro palace), is San Jeronimo el Real (Mon-Fri 8am-1.30pm & 6-8pm, Sat & Sun 9am-1.30pm & 6.30-8pm, Oct-July opens one hour earlier in the afternoon), Madrid's society church, where in 1975 Juan Carlos (like his predecessors) was crowned. Opposite is the Real Academia Espanola de la Lengua (Royal Language Academy), whose job it is to make sure that the Spanish language is not corrupted by foreign or otherwise unsuitable words; the results are entrusted to their official dictionary - a work that bears virtually no relation to the Spanish you'll hear spoken on the streets.
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