Madrid Río: Roads Reclaimed

Madrid Río looks effortless today, but nearly every lawn, path and pine conceals a complicated story. This walk begins at traffic-heavy Legazpi, where rail links, factories and workers’ districts supported Madrid’s municipal slaughterhouse and its carefully organized system of food production. From Matadero’s brick pavilions, the route follows the Manzanares past sculptural footbridges, hydraulic dams and the Salón de Pinos. Along the way, you will learn how engineers buried sections of the M-30 while solving difficult problems involving ventilation, drainage, soil depth and neighborhood access. Farther north, historic and reused bridges reveal what planners removed, preserved or adapted. Puente de Toledo regained its monumental setting, while Puente Oblicuo changed from a motorway structure into a route for walkers and cyclists. The former Vicente Calderón corridor shows how football and road engineering shaped the riverfront’s final missing link. This tour is ideal for architecture enthusiasts, infrastructure watchers and anyone curious about how cities repair landscapes dominated by traffic. It is a substantial but nearly level journey through industrial heritage, bold urban design and one of Europe’s most ambitious public-space transformations.