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A large, ornate building with classical architecture, including columns and statues, at night. 1
A group of people taking a selfie in front of a building with barred windows and a sign that reads 'PRESIDENT'. 2
A group of people standing in front of a brick building at night. 3
A historic plaza with a statue of a mounted figure, ornate buildings, and a cobblestone ground. 4
A grand illuminated building with classical architecture, surrounded by a formal garden and street lamps. 5
By Ignacio Castro - Wanderia Travel
Free cancellation available
Price is NZ$32 per adult

Features

  • Free cancellation available
  • 2h
  • Mobile voucher
  • Instant confirmation

Overview

    • Visit 9 real locations in the centre where notorious crimes took place
    • Learn about police files, autopsies, and dates that exist in the newspaper archives
    • Stand on the ground where they were dismembered, walled up, or beheaded
    • Hear live a documented psychophony in a Madrid palace
    • Cross the exact street that those sentenced to death in Plaza Mayor walked

Activity location

    • Madrid
    • Madrid, Comunidad de Madrid, Spain

Meeting/Redemption Point

    • Pl. de Ote., Centro, 28013 Madrid, España | Plaza de Oriente, behind the equestrian statue of Felipe IV (in front of the Royal Palace). The tour guide will be in that area, behind the statue.
    • Madrid, Comunidad de Madrid, Spain

Check availability

What's included, what's not

  • Inclusions
    Professional Spanish-speaking tour guide
  • Inclusions
    Walking tour of 9 sites in Madrid's historic centre
  • Inclusions
    Commentary with dates, names and documentary sources
  • Inclusions
    Viewing of press photos and historical archives during the sightseeing tour
  • Inclusions
    Small group for a better listening experience
  • Inclusions
    Centrally located meeting point accessible by metro
  • Inclusions
    Assistance before and after the sightseeing tour for any questions
  • Exclusions
    Transport to meeting point
  • Exclusions
    Food and Drinks
  • Exclusions
    Admissions to the interiors of monuments (not necessary)

Know before you book

    • Not allowed: Alcohol and drugs
    • Not suitable for: Children under 16 years

What you can expect

  • Another route with made-up ghosts in sheets and carnival-style scares? This sightseeing tour is the opposite. For two hours, you'll visit nine sites in Madrid's historic centre where real crimes, documented murders, dismemberments, political attacks, and paranormal cases with signed police files took place.

    We start at Plaza de Oriente, in front of the Royal Palace. I'll tell you the storey of Charles II “the Bewitched”, the last Habsburg, who was exorcised in the Alcázar before dying with a body “without a drop of blood” according to the coroner who signed his autopsy. Then we walk to the side of the palace to look down on the Royal Theatre — built in the shape of a coffin on an old Muslim cemetery: the Tower of Bones.

    We go down Calle Sacramento to the Cathedral of the Armed Forces, thirty metres from the balcony from which Mateo Morral threw the bomb that killed 25 people on the day of Alfonso XIII's wedding in 1906. Then we enter Plaza del Conde de Miranda, where in 1913 an army captain and his 18-year-old daughter dismembered a wealthy widower and walled him up in his own kitchen.

    We enter Plaza Mayor via Calle de la Amargura — the last street that those sentenced to death walked along. There, I'll tell you about the public execution of Don Rodrigo Calderón, Marquis of Siete Iglesias, and the legend of the ghost of Cirilo, who still walks under the arcades.

    We continue to Plaza de la Provincia, where the Madrid Court Prison was located, to talk about Luis Candelas, the most famous bandit in the city, who was executed in 1837 at the doors of the building itself.

    From there, we'll go to the Posada del Peine — the oldest hotel in Spain, founded in 1610 — where for four centuries no one asked the names of the guests, where there are rooms with secret staircases behind the closet, and where a lady in black still appears, as seen by a maid and a guest at the current hotel.

    We'll then head through the Pasadizo de San Ginés to one of the oldest churches in Madrid, where in 1353 some thieves beheaded an old man and left his head at the feet of the Virgin. His ghost is still there.

    We finish in Plaza de Ópera with stories of bloody Madrid that are too far away to visit: the walled-up skeletons of the Casa de las Siete Chimeneas, the real psychophony recorded at the Palacio de Linares in 1990 — which you'll hear live on your phone — and the Vallecas File, the only official paranormal police case documented in Spain.

    I'm not telling you made-up legends. I'm telling you about files, dates, names, and addresses that you can check later in the newspaper archive. This is the most unique night you'll ever spend in Madrid.

Location

Activity location

  • LOB_ACTIVITIESLOB_ACTIVITIES
    • Madrid
    • Madrid, Comunidad de Madrid, Spain

Meeting/Redemption Point

  • PEOPLEPEOPLE
    • Pl. de Ote., Centro, 28013 Madrid, España | Plaza de Oriente, behind the equestrian statue of Felipe IV (in front of the Royal Palace). The tour guide will be in that area, behind the statue.
    • Madrid, Comunidad de Madrid, Spain