Gran Vía

mariapiquet's picture

Location

Madrid
Spain
40° 25' 12.9468" N, 3° 42' 17.622" W
ES
General info: 

When you visit Madrid, you simply cannot miss Gran Via. The largest and probably one of the most important boulevards in Spain is filled with pieces of history and architecture that you will hardly find so exposed anywhere else. If you are interested in the early 20th century architecture, this is the place to be at.
Are you a shopaholic? Once again, here you will find a large diversity of stores that you will surely be interested in, on each side of the boulevard. A lot of hotels are also located here and you can book a room with one of them if you want to be close to the action.
Although in the beginning, Gran Via was a cynical definition that referred to postponed construction of the boulevard, the name was adopted officially in 1981.

Getting there: 

If you find yourself close to Plaza Cibeles, Plaza de Espana or Calle de Alcala, you will have the opportunity to visit from one of the ends of the boulevard.

You might be interested in

Started as an ambitious pet project of Korea’s leader Kim Il-sung in the 90’s the Ryugyong hotel somehow proved to be a disaster. The construction turned to waste and the unfinished building stood in the middle of Pyongyang for years.

When the City Hall station was made, in 1902 it was designed to be the showpiece of the new New York subway.

Hashima Island is an abandoned island city in Japan, near the coast of the city Nagasaki (Also known as Battleship Island). The island was populated from 1887 to 1974 as a coal mining facility.

A hundred years ago, the officials of Detroit decided to build a monumental train station which will be the premier landmark of their city.

There is not much information available about this abandoned community. For a fact it can be said that it is/was somewhere close to Keelung, Taiwan. The rest of the information there is, is scattered and not 100% waterproof.

Just 3km from downtown Helsinki there is an eerie collection of luxury villas left to decay.