Salamanca (Madrid)
Encyclopedia
Salamanca is one of the 21 districts that form the city of Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. Salamanca is located to the northeast of the historical center of Madrid.

Overview

The limits of Salamanca district are defined by the Paseo de Recoletos
Paseo de Recoletos
Paseo de Recoletos is a wide boulevard in central Madrid leading from Plaza de Cibeles to Plaza de Colón.From West to East it consists of:* Two southward lanes* The pedestrian walk* A southward Bus lane* Three southward lanes...

 and the Paseo de la Castellana
Paseo de la Castellana
Paseo de la Castellana , commonly known as La Castellana, is one of the longest and widest avenues of Madrid. It is named after an old fountain that used to exist in Plaza de Castilla...

 to the west, the Calle de Alcalá
Calle de Alcalá
Calle de Alcalá is the longest street in Madrid. It starts at the Puerta del Sol and goes on for 10.5 km, to the northeastern outskirts of the city....

 and Calle O'Donnell to the south, the Avenida de la Paz (M-30) to the east and María de Molina
María de Molina
María de Molina was the wife of Sancho IV of Castile. She was queen consort of Castile and León from 1284 to 1295 and then regent until the coming of age of her son Ferdinand IV.- Biography :...

 Street and Avenida de América to the north. It covers an area of 540.742 hectare
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...

s.

Subdivision

The district is administratively divided into 7 wards (Barrios):
  • Castellana
  • Fuente del Berro
  • Goya
  • Guindalera
  • Lista
  • Parque de las Avenidas
  • Recoletos

History

The population of Madrid at the beginning of the 19th century was about 220.000, increasing to 300.000 inhabitants in the late 1850s. However, the city was still enclosed within the defensive wall built in 1625 by king Philip IV of Spain
Philip IV of Spain
Philip IV was King of Spain between 1621 and 1665, sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands, and King of Portugal until 1640...

, which blocked the city growth. In 1857, government allowed the then minister of public works and transportation Claudio Moyano to expand the city (Plan Castro). Queen Isabella II allowed so in 1860 and the defensive walls were torn down in order to build the first Madrilian ensanche
Ensanche
Ensanche means "widening" in Spanish. It is used to name the development areas of Spanish cities around the end of the 19th century, when the demographic explosion and the Industrial Revolution prompted the tearing down of the old city wall and the construction of neighborhoods under grid plans.The...

. Don José de Salamanca y Mayol, Marquis of Salamanca, gave his name to the area because of his involvement in the project. It was completely urbanized by 1927.

Since then, the Salamanca district has been one of the most representative areas for bourgeois madrileños. Salamanca is in the outer area of the "Rondas", where the neighborhoods of Guindalera and Fuente del Berro originated with more spontaneous urban development. Marqués de Salamanca Square separates the wealthy area from the more popular parts of the district. Nowadays, the Salamanca district is one of the wealthiest areas in Madrid and some of its streets, such as Goya or Serrano are part of the most expensive streets in Spain.

Politics

The district of Salamanca had more than 50% of its votes given to the People's Party
People's Party (Spain)
The People's Party is a conservative political party in Spain.The People's Party was a re-foundation in 1989 of the People's Alliance , a party led and founded by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, a former Minister of Tourism during Francisco Franco's dictatorship...

 in the Spanish regional elections of 2007
Spanish regional elections, 2007
A number of elections were held in Spain on 27 May 2007:* municipal elections;* local elections of various types like the elections to the Cabildo on the Canary Islands;* elections to the Assembly of Ceuta and Melilla; and...

 as well as in 2003 in both elections being the candidates to the City Hall and the Autonomous Community Alberto Ruiz Gallardón and Esperanza Aguirre
Esperanza Aguirre
Esperanza Aguirre y Gil de Biedma, Countess of Murillo, Grandee of Spain, DBE is a Spanish politician and the current President of Madrid...

 respectively (both currently in office). The district has also voted strongly in favor of the People's Party
People's Party (Spain)
The People's Party is a conservative political party in Spain.The People's Party was a re-foundation in 1989 of the People's Alliance , a party led and founded by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, a former Minister of Tourism during Francisco Franco's dictatorship...

 in all the recent spanish general elections as well as the European Parliament elections in 2009
European Parliament election, 2009 (Spain)
The European Parliament election of 2009 in Spain was the election of the delegation from Spain to the European Parliament in 2009.- Opinion polls :-Results:-References:...

 and before.

Demographics

Salamanca has about 150,775 inhabitants in 58.742 houses, with a density of 279 people per hectare.

Economy

Salamanca is well-known for being one of the wealthiest and expensive areas in Madrid, with a high living cost and one of the highest real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...

 prices in the city. Serrano street is listed as the third most expensive street in Spain (with Preciados street, also in Madrid the first) according with Cushman & Wakefield.

A significant number of diplomatic missions are set in Salamanca district, such as the Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 embassy at Nuñez de Balboa with Goya street, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 embassy at 74 Serrano street, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

embassy in Nuñez de Balboa street and the Italian embassy in Juan Bravo Street.

External links

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