Centro de Turismo Plaza Mayor — Attraction in Madrid

Casa de la Panaderia is in my opinion the most impressive and most beautiful building on Plaza Mayor and perhaps of Madrid. The frescos painted on the outside (which are quite recent) are unique. Casa de la Panaderia, or the Bakery, was designed to house the Bakers Guild. At that time this was a powerful organization, because they controlled the price of grand and bread. This gave them great political and economical power and their building should represent this great importance. The building stands at the north side of the square and has two large towers with spires. In the middle of the building you can see a golden crown, which was the symbol of the guild.

Already in 1590 a wooden structure was built on the place of the Bakery. It was destroyed many times by heavy fires. The building we see today is from 1790 and was reconstructed by Juan de Villanueva. In 1914 Enrique Guijo was commissioned to do decorative paintings on the facade. In 1988 several artist were invited to replace the old and deteriorated paintings. Carlos Franco was chosen and he made the frescos in 1992. The Bakers Guild used the building until 1732 and after that it was used for many other purposes. At the end of the 19th century, the Madrid City Council took over the building and it became the headquarters of the Municipal Library and Municipal Archives. Today it is occupied by the Madrid Tourist Board and the ground floor houses the Madrid Tourism Center. It is free to enter and it is open from 09:30 till 20:30. This is the place to get your Madrid tourist...

The Casa de la Panadería, or Bakery House in English is a building that was erected during the construction of the Plaza Mayor. Originally used for various government agencies, it's now used as offices for tourism and there's a tourist information centre on the ground floor.

The building is very much in the Flemish style and has two towers and spires. The frescoes in the facade are very beautiful and at the centre of the facade is the Spanish coat of arms. You can't miss this building if visiting Plaza Mayor, so definitely take a close look, it's beautiful and a favourite target of...

Normally I have good success with these offices in Spain but this one was bad. Walked in and we were ignored by the staff while three of four tables had no one at them. We were then given a basic map with the instructions to visit the buildings. When asked, they told us the museums had free times every day at certain hours but didn't explain that the hours are different for Sunday. We ended up missing the chance to go to the museum because of the misinformation. We told him we were only here for the weekend so it seems like a big oversight. I guess they just...