The 21 most beautiful places in Madrid

The corner of C/Alcalá and Gran Vía boasts one of the most famous (and beautiful) buildings in Madrid. It was inaugurated in 1911 by the company La Unión y El Fénix that would then sell it to the insurance company Metrópolis in the 1970s, hence its current name. Its slate dome covered with more than 30,000 leaves of 24-carat gold is a symbol of the city. Curiously, the statue of the Winged Victory that crowns the building today is not the original. It replaced a bronze phoenix that the original owners took with them. It's worth going at dusk to see the whole place lit up with more than 200 bulbs.