Madrid a century ago

Madrid a Century Ago: 1900-1936 is a fascinating journey through a decisive, changing and largely vanished Madrid. To make this regression possible, we have immersed ourselves in the ABC Archive, possibly the most valuable photographic collection in our country, to select two hundred snapshots which, accompanied by the texts of Manuel García del Moral Escobedo -creator of Secretos de Madrid-, will allow us to relive the customs, habits and day-to-day life of Madrid in the first decades of the 20th century. A city that in little more than thirty years underwent a profound and key metamorphosis to put itself on a par with other European capitals.
In these pages we will witness the beginning of the works of the Gran Vía, we will see how the construction works of the Almudena Cathedral are progressing, we will have fun in the parties of the high society, in the Hippodrome of the Castellana, and also with the humblest classes, in the verbenas and the quermeses. We will go shopping in street markets that are now extinct, we will visit the most elegant shops in the city, we will attend emotional parades, we will laugh at carnivals, we will witness the arrival of football, we will dodge the antics of the street urchins, we will ride the trams, but we will also have to suffer attacks and murders in broad daylight.
A visual and emotional review that, in short, will help us to better understand the Madrid that we now walk around and whose foundations, manners and soul began to be forged, precisely, a century ago.

Publisher: La Librería