Modern Madrid: Fast-forwarding through the Bourbon, French, Republican, Nationalist, and other historic periods brings us to the present day when most of the city that you see was built in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Along the Gran Vía, for example, you’ll view flamboyant wedding-cake skyscrapers from the early 1900s, leading to the Plaza de España with its massive, ornately decorated concrete skyscrapers from the late 1940s and ’50s.

Head north from the center, along the leafy but heavily-trafficked Paseo de la Castellana, and you’ll encounter wildly modern buildings such as the Torres Kio (left) at the Plaza de Castilla and Terminal 4 at Madrid’s Barajas Airport, which was designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership and Estudio Lamala of Madrid. The newest precincts of Madrid may not be interesting to the average tourist, but they’re in keeping with the spirit of a dynamic, growing city that has always been more inclined to look forward than to the past. Let yourself be inspired by our recommendations www.europeforvisitors.com.