This document provides an overview of the BYU Madrid study abroad program. It discusses that students live with host families in Alcalá de Henares, take classes at the local university, and take weekend trips to other Spanish cities. It recommends popular sites to visit in Madrid like El Retiro park and the Golden Triangle museums. It also highlights day trips students can take to places like Toledo, Seville, and smaller towns that give insight into Spanish culture and history.

1. 40 byu magazine | spring 2014
M A D R I D
S p a i n
I
N A VIBRANT melting
pot of cultures—inherited
from Basques, Celts, Iberians,
Romans, and Moors—Madrid
is the center of one of the most diverse
countries in Europe. “It’s a country
with magnificent variety,” says John R.
Rosenberg (BA ’79, MA ’81), dean of the
College of Humanities. With some of
Europe’s finest art museums, a history
that includes the 15th-century New
World expeditions, and a topography
featuring both glaciered mountains
and breathtaking beaches, Spain offers
BYU groups and other travelers a rich
linguistic and cultural experience.
Students in BYU’s Madrid program—
usually there to study Spanish—live
with host families in Alcalá de Henares,
a 50-minute train ride from the heart of
the capital. They take classes at the Uni-
versity of Alcalá from the local profes-
sors in subjects like Iberian civilization
and Spanish literature and grammar.
Most weekends BYU students
take trips to other cities in Spain and
visit sites like the preserved Roman
aqueducts in Segovia or the Islamic
mosque in Córdoba that was converted
into a Christian cathedral during the
Reconquista in the 13th century.
B y N a t a l i e S a n d b e r g T a y l o r ( ’ 1 4 )
Madrid
★
PORTUGAL
F R A N C E
S
P
A
I N
Authentic Spain
JOIN THE CROWDS. Touristy though they may be, the big-draw sites “are part of
authentic Spain,” says Rosenberg. “Even the great monumental places . . . are very
much embedded in the Spanish psyche.” While Consuegra, with its iconic windmills
that inspired Miguel Cervantes’s Don Quixote, is a popular tourist destination, you
will also find Spanish families sitting on the rocks and reading passages of the novel
to their children.
RELAX IN THE PLAZAS. Nearly every major city or village in Spain has a unique
plaza mayor, or a main town square, where you can sit and people watch, enjoy a
three-course meal, listen to live musicians, and savor the terrace atmosphere. Carson
J. McKinlay (BA ’13), a spring 2011 student, especially enjoyed observing “the cute old
ladies we’d always see sitting together in the Plaza de Cortez gossiping.”
TRY THE TAPAS. Tapas—small appetizers or snacks—are an important part of
Spanish eating culture. They allow you to restaurant-hop, sampling a bit of what-
ever you like, and help you make it to dinner, which usually doesn’t start till 8 p.m.
Most tapas menus include items like fish, sausage, stuffed olives, or a slice of tortilla
Española—a Spanish omelet with fried potato and onion.
m e d i t e r
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Puerta del Sol
VICTORPALAEZ/ISTOCK/THINKSTOCK

2. magazine.byu.edu 41
For Your Itinerary
EL PARQUE DEL BUEN RETIRO. Once a recreation area for the royal family, this
350-acre park in the heart of the city lives up to its translated title: “Park of the Pleas-
ant Retreat.” BYU students like to relax here on Sundays or after class on a weekday
afternoon, when they can peruse the trinkets of street vendors, rent a rowboat to take
out on the small lake, visit the gardens and fountains, or simply nap on the lawn.
THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE. Downtown Madrid houses three world-class museums—
known as the Golden Triangle of Art—all within about a block of each other: the Prado,
the Thyssen-Bornemisza, and the Reina Sofia. One year, before visiting the Reina Sofia,
Turley’s students put on a living reenactment of Guernica, Picasso’s depiction of the
bombing of a small Basque town during the Spanish Civil War. “[It] really opened up
the history of the civil war for them and made visiting the actual painting . . . so much
richer,” he says.
Get Out of Town
For all there is to see in Madrid proper,
says program director Jeffrey S. Turley
(BA ’82, MA ’84), “the weekend trips
really are vital to understanding Spain
as a whole. There’s just such a variety.”
A must-see is the medieval city of
Toledo, a half-hour from Madrid via
a high-velocity train. A place where
Christian, Moorish, and Jewish cul-
tures coexisted during the Middle Ages,
the city is famous for its sword making.
Be sure to visit the gothic Primate
Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo (you
can’t miss it) and the home of painter
El Greco.
There are plenty of tourist spots to
hit in Spain’s southern region, which
includes Córdoba and Granada, but be
sure to attend a flamenco performance
in one of Seville’s tablaos, where you
can grab dinner or drinks—and where
the performers are so close that their
passion is practically tangible.
Madrid’s surrounding area offers
dozens of delightful small towns, but
Rosenberg recommends visiting the
village of Chinchón with its dirt plaza
and traditional bullfights. One of Tur-
ley’s favorites is Cuenca, a city lined
with cobblestone streets and known
for its casas colgadas, or houses hang-
ing over steep cliffs.
Top: Annalaura S. Solomon (’14), Alyson K. Astle (’14),
Jessica F. Pitcher (’13), and Kimberly M. Jones (’14) pose in
front of Toledo, a popular subject for painters—including one
of the city’s own, El Greco.
Above: Whitney Wing Staples (BA ’13) (front) and Carson
J. McKinlay (BA ’13) “tilt” at the same windmills Don Quixote
mistook for giants in the classic Spanish novel.
Below: Halfway between Madrid and Valencia,
the UNESCO heritage town of Cuenca offers
picturesque views of brightly painted buildings and
houses clinging to cliff walls.
TOLEDO:COURTESYJESSICAPITCHER;WINDMILLS:COURTESYWHITNEYWING;CUENCA:CARSONMCKINLAY