New volumes of the Encyclopædia Britannica > Volume 30, K-MOR

MAD
limits of Madrid in 1875, the modern suburbs have
extended to the vicinity of the fine cellular prison that
was built at the close of the reign of King Alphonso XII. to
replace the gloomy building known as El Saladero. It can
hold nearly 1000 male prisoners, and serves also as a house
of correction for offenders undergoing short terms of im¬
prisonment. The prison for females calls for considerable
improvement. The new parts of the capital, with their
broad streets and squares, and their villas sometimes sur¬
rounded with gardens, the noble mansions of the upper
classes, the boulevards lined with rather stunted trees, and
the modern public buildings, all resemble the similar
features of other European capitals, and contrast with the
old Madrid that has preserved so many of its traits in
architecture, popular life, and habits. Some of the streets
have been widened slightly, and in many thoroughfares
new houses are gradually studding the background formed
by the ugly, irregular dwelling-places of the 18th and
earlier centuries. This contrast is to be seen especially in
and about the Calle Mayor, the Plaza Mayor, the Calle
Toledo, the Rastro, and the heart of the city. There are,
however, several buildings, dating from times long past,
which are worthy of admiration—grand, old-world resi¬
dences of the ancient nobility, massive convents, the
episcopal palace, the Town Hall opposite the palace of
the Lujanes, the Government House, the house of the
seven chimneys that was the residence of Charles I.
of England and Buckingham in 1623, and the many
ministerial offices installed in old conventual buildings.
The churches of Madrid underwent alteration in the
last quarter of the 19th century. When the capital
was separated from the archiepiscopal see of Toledo,
and erected into a bishopric, styled of Madrid Alcala,
the church of San Isidro was made the cathedral. The
church of the old Franciscan convent, San Francisco el
Grande, has been splendidly restored by the State at con¬
siderable expense. Its dome, chapels, and walls were
covered with remarkable works, frescoes, and paintings
by most of the leading Spanish artists of the last half of
the 19th century. The modern chapels and churches of
the capital are not worth noticing, except the church of the
Almudena, founded by King Alphonso XII. close to his
palace, which, however, has progressed so slowly that only its
crypt and the base of its massive walls and columns of solid
granite were complete in 1901. The Campo de Moro, as the
slope below the palace down to the river road is styled, was
greatly improved by the Queen Mother (Maria Christina).
Some noble timber has been sacrificed, and a modern park
and gardens substituted. Little progress has been made
in the reconstruction of the historic church of the Virgin of
Atocha, which it was at one time intended to make a
pantheon for the worthies of modern Spain, several of whom,
like Castanos and Palafox, the heroes of the War of
Independence against Napoleon L, and Prim, the chief of
the Revolution of 1868, had found there a last resting-place.
The Courts of Justice are still held in the 17th-century
convent of Las Salesas Reales. The Houses of Parliament
are in separate buildings. The Congreso, or House of
Deputies, which has met since 1843 in a large handsome
structure in the Carrera San Geromino, has a very im¬
portant library; the Senate is in an old convent of
the Augustine order (restored), and has fine modern
paintings, and also a library of 20,000 volumes. The
squares of the Spanish capital are adorned with many
statues of kings, statesmen, soldiers of the War of Indepen¬
dence, and great writers like Calderon and Cervantes; and
not a few of the residences or birthplaces of eminent men
have been redeemed from oblivion and distinguished by
slabs of marble with inscriptions. There are no less than
fourteen theatres and two circuses, besides the Royal
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Opera House and the Retiro Gardens, also with a theatre
that is the chief summer resort at night.
Few capitals have more extensively developed their electric and
horse tramways, gas and electric light companies, and telephones.
Much was done to improve the sanitary conditions of the city in
the last twenty years of the 19th century. The streets are deluged
three times a day with fire-hose, but even that has little effect upon
the dust. Unfortunately the water-supply, which used to be famed
for its abundance and purity, is now wholly insufficient owing to
the growth of the city. The reservoirs of the Lozoya canal, 32
miles long, are quite inadequate for the requirements of modern
Madrid, and they have been kept in such an unsatisfactory state
that in 1898 and 1899 for several months the water not only was
on the point of giving out, but at times was of such inferior
quality that the people had recourse to the many wells and
fountains still extant in the ten districts of the Spanish capital. A
decided improvement has been made in the burial customs. No
bodies are allowed to be interred in the churches and convents.
Some of the older burial grounds in the northern suburbs have been
closed altogether, and in those which remain open, few coffins
are placed in the niche vaults in the depth of the thick walls, as
was once the practice. A large modem necropolis has been
established a few miles to the north-east, where most burials now
take place, and the older cemeteries must all be closed at no
distant date. Madrid had a British cemetery more than thirty
years before the end of the 19th century. The city contains also
a British Embassy chapel, a German chapel, and several Spanish
Protestant chapels attended by over 1200 native Protestants,
while the Protestant schools, chiefly supported by British, German,
and American contributions, are attended by more than 2500
children.
The first Protestant bishop of Madrid was ordained in 1895 by
Archbishop Plunkett of Dublin. The Spanish educational estab¬
lishments have also been considerably improved. The university
had in 1897 a staff of 102 professors and 21,500 students. Of these
11.500 belonged to the faculty of law, 8000 to that of medicine,
150 to that of science, 1650 to pharmacy, and 200 to philosophy
and literature. Besides the special superior schools there are a
self-supporting institute for preparing girls for the higher degrees
and for certificates as primary teachers, and two institutes for
secondary education, one attached to the university and the other
conducted chiefly by ecclesiastics. There are now more than 120
primary, State, and municipal schools, educating 58,000 hoys and
49.500 girls. The Jesuit schools of Chamartin and the Scolapian
fathers are conspicuous among private institutions. The charitable
institutions have been remarkably improved. The Princess
Hospital has been completely restored on modern methods, and
can accommodate several hundred patients. The old contagious
diseases hospital of San Juan de Dios has been pulled down and a
fine new hospital built in the suburbs beyond the Retiro Park,
to hold 700 patients. The Military Hospital has also been
demolished and a very good one built in the suburbs. The old
Provincial Hospital, to hold 1200 patients, is, however, in anything
but a satisfactory condition. There are now in all twenty hospitals
in Madrid, and a lunatic asylum on the outskirts of the capital,
founded by one of the most eminent of Spanish surgeons, and
conducted by him on a scale which enables the institute worthily
to compare with those in other European capitals. The rate of
mortality in the three foundling hospitals is high, the services
being seriously crippled by lack of funds. New buildings have
been provided for the orphanages, and for the asylums for the
blind, deaf and dumb, incurables, and aged paupers. There are
hospitals supported by the French, Italian, and Belgian colonies;
these are old and well-endowed foundations. Public charity generally
is very active. In Madrid, as in the rest of Spain, there has been
an unprecedented increase in convents, monasteries, and religious
institutions, societies, and Catholic workmen’s clubs and classes.
Apart from private institutions for such purposes, the State
maintains in the capital a savings bank for the poorer classes,
and on the other hand acts the role of pawnbroker for their
benefit. The commerce of the capital is chiefly important in the
retail trade, and the mercantile and industrial classes are organized
in “guilds,”which themselves collect the lump sum of taxation
exacted by the exchequer and the municipality, from each grcmio
or class of taxpayers. The working classes also have commercial
and industrial circulos or clubs that are obeyed by the guilds with
great esprit de corps, a chamber of commerce and industries,
and associations of “productions” to defend their economic
interests. The industries of the capital have developed extra¬
ordinarily since 1890. In the town and within the municipal
boundaries in the suburbs many manufactories have been
established, giving employment to more than 30,000 hands, besides
the 4000 women and girls of the Tobacco Monopoly Company’s
factory. Among the most important factories are those which
make every article in leather, especially cigar and card cases,
purses and pocket-books, all duly stamped Paris, London, and