Kilometre Zero
The plaque from which all Spain's roads are measured.
Tomás Fano — CC BY-SA 2.0 · tnarik from Spain — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Nemo — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Nemo — CC BY-SA 4.0
Spain's unifying rite: with each of midnight's twelve chimes a grape is swallowed for luck — the chimes being this very clock's, broadcast nationwide, the square that night Spain's biggest celebration (with controlled entry). December visitors catch the rehearsals days before.
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The Puerta del Sol is Spain's literal point zero: the Kilometre Zero plaque before the clock house is where all the nation's radial roads begin, and standing on it is the first-time visitor's rite. The clock above is Spain's most famous: its New Year's Eve chimes broadcast to the whole nation as it swallows the twelve grapes. The renewed pedestrian half-moon gathers ten streets, and holds Madrid's small great symbols: the Bear and Strawberry Tree statue, the city's emblem (and its most famous meeting point), the equestrian Carlos III, and the venerable Tío Pepe light sign on the roofline. Not the loveliest square but the city's pulse: from it you rise to Gran Vía and drop to Mayor — the crossroads of every centre walk, its twenty minutes an inevitable part of any Madrid day.
The plaque from which all Spain's roads are measured.
Madrid's bronze emblem from its medieval arms.
Puerta del Sol, 28013 Madrid