Walls of Madrid

The five Walls of Madrid is a name given to the successive Walls that surrounded the city of Madrid from Middle Ages until end of the 19th century. Some walls had defensive or military functions, others merely urban or tax control making it easy to discern who lived inside or outside the city. Around the end of the 19th century the demographic explosion of the Industrial Revolution prompted urban expansion throughout Spain. The walls of the old city were torn down to enable the expansion of the city under the grid plan of Carlos María de Castro.[1][2]

Plan of the different Walls of Madrid, published in 1847 in the Semanario Pintoresco Español.

The following list are the walls of Madrid:

• Muslim Walls of Madrid (9th century)
• Christian Walls of Madrid (9th century to 1561)
• Walls del Arrabal (1438)
• Walls of Philip II (1566)
• Walls of Philip IV (1625 to 1868)