Plaza Mayor

This guide to Plaza Mayor in Madrid returns to the thirtieth of June, 1680, when a teenage King Charles the Second took his seat among balconies packed with spectators to watch the Spanish Inquisition stage a public trial drawing in over a hundred accused. You'll hear about the court painter Francisco Rizi's canvas of that day, still hanging in the Prado, and how the square itself later burned three times over the following century. Look up at the balconies as you cross the square.