M AD 
houfes it contains. It is 1536 feet in circuit. The houfes, 
of which there are 136, are of five ftories, ornamented 
with balconies; the firft of which, fupported by pillars, 
forms a piazza round the fquare, where the inhabitants 
may walk under cover. In the middle of the fquare a 
market is kept. The ftreets and fquares of ftladrid, ex¬ 
cept the Plaza Mayor, which has been jult defcribed, are 
ornamented with fountains in a very ill talte. Tliofe molt 
to be diltinguilhed in this particular are the fountain of 
the fmall irregular fquare called Plaza di Antonio Martin, 
and that of the fquare named Puerto del Sol. The others 
are not more magnificent, though lels ridiculous. The 
•water of all thefe fountains is excellent; and the air of 
Madrid, though the weather be variable and uncertain, is 
extremely pure. It was this purity of the air, and excel¬ 
lent quality of the water, which induced Philip II. and 
his fucceffors to fix their refidence in this city. It is alfo 
well fupplied.with provifions of all kinds at reafonable 
rates ; and the court, with the refort and refidence of the 
quality, and the high colleges and offices that are kept 
here, occafion a brilk trade and circulation of money. 
The facred edifices in this city have nothing remarkable 
in their architecture; thole of St. Pafqual, St. Ifabella, 
and the Carmelites, contain highly-valuable collections 
of pictures, which may be feen with admiration even 
after the paintings of the Efcurial and the new palace. 
The church of St Ifnlro, which heretofore belonged to 
the Jefuits, has a portal which has efcaped the contagion 
of the age in which it was built. There is another church 
much more modern, which on account of its mafs has a 
■venerable apoearance, but which true talte mayjultly dif- 
avow : it is that of St Salefas, or the Vifitation, founded 
by Ferdinand VI. and the queen Barbara his wife. The 
convent of St. Francis, lately built, is one of the finelt 
productions of architecture in the capital. Befitles a va¬ 
riety of charitable foundations, there are three con¬ 
fraternities, the revenues of which are appropriated to the 
fuccour of the wretched ; and an inftitution fimilar to the 
Monte de Piete in Paris, the principal objeCt of which is to 
advance money to the neceffitous. 
Madrid contains fifteen gates, eighteen parilhes, thirty- 
five convents of monks,and thirty-one of nuns; thirty-nine 
colleges, hofpitals, or houfes of charity; 7398 dwelling- 
houfes, and about 160,000 inhabitants. The Lombard 
traveller, father Caimo, tells us, that 50,000 fheep and 
12,000 oxen are annually confumed there; to which 
his editor has added a ludicrous eftimate of the onions 
and leeks devoured annually, which he fays amount to 
970000000000000000000000000000045. But this writer 
(M. Bourgoanne obferves) would not at prefent have any 
reafon to complain of the difagreeable fmells of the ftreets, 
nor would he find all the perfumes of Arabia neceffary to 
defend himfelf from them. By the vigilance of the mo¬ 
dern police, for which (M. Bourgoanne informs us) it is 
indebted to the count d’Aranda, it is rendered one of the 
cleaned cities in Europe. 
There are four academies in Madrid : The firft is the 
Spanilh Academy, noticed vol. i. p. 47. Its firft objeCt 
was the compilation of a dictionary of the Spanilh lan¬ 
guage, which was publilhed in fix volumes folio; and of 
which a new edition, with great additions, has been lately 
put to the prefs. The fecond is the Academy of Hiftory; 
which owes its origin to a fociety of individuals, the ob¬ 
ject of whofe meetings was to preferve and illuftrate the 
hiftorical monuments of the kingdom of Spain. Their 
labours met the approbation of Philip V. who in 1738 
confirmed the ftatutes by a royal cedula. This academy 
eonfifts of twenty-four members, including the prefident, 
fecretary, and cenfor. Its device is a river at its fource ; 
and the motto, In patriam populumque Jluit. The other two 
academies are, the Academy of the Fine Arts, painting, 
J'culpture, and architecture; and the Academy of Medi¬ 
cine. The latter is held in no great elteera. 
The city of Madridds in the diocefe of Toledo; and the 
Spiritual adminiftration is-directed by the grand yicar of 
RID. 70 
that city; a biffiop in partibus inftUilium, auxiliary to the- 
archhilhop, alfo refides there, with the powers of that 
prelate. The fecular clergy are 395 in number; and the 
regular clergy, including thofe of the monks and nuns, 
amount to 2718 ; amounting in the whole to 3113. The 
head of the civil adminiftration is a military governor, who • 
hears the honours of captain-general of a province ; and 
the police is under the l’uperintendance ol different ma- 
giltrates. Since the expulfion of the jefuits, Charles III, 
in 1770, eftablilhed an enlarged plan for the initruition 
of youth, the execution of which is committed to a num¬ 
ber of fecular priefts, who, in one of the houfes former!v 
occupied by the Jefuits, fuperintend the college of St. Ifi- 
dore. This eftablilhment includes fixteen matters, or pro- 
feffors, for the languages and fciences, and a good library. 
There is'another college appropriated to the inftruftion 
of the young nobility. Among the libraries, we may enu¬ 
merate the royal library, formed in 1712, and containing 
a great number of printed volumes, a large collection of 
manuferipts, a variety of modern medals, and a- (election- 
of antiques : the cabinet of natural hiltory was formed by- 
Charles III. am! is receiving continual acceifions. To 
the clafs of curious and ufeful edifices in Madrid, we may 
refer feveral of its churches, its gates, the emtom-houfe, 
erefted : n 1769 ; the houle of the academy of Sr. Fernando, 
and of the cabinet of natural hiltory; the Chide Carreos, 
or pott-houie ; the Caraft de Corfe, or ftate prifon, erected" 
under Philip IV. the Cafa del Ayuntamiento, or town- 
houle ; the Palaeio de los Conjalos, or council houle, which 
is the feat of a fupreme tribunal; the Armeria Real, or 
royal magazine. The king’s palace ttands on an eminence 
at one of the extremities of Madrid, commanding a diltant 
view of the beautiful country, which is watered by the 
Manzanares ; founded by Alphonfus VI. in the eleventh 
century, facked by the Moors in 1109; afterwards de-- 
Itroyed by an earthquake, but repaired by Henry II. and 
completed by Henry IV. much enlarged by Charles V. and 
his lucceffors; totally contained by fire in 1734; and, in 
1737, rebuilt on its prefent plan by Philip V. and Ferdi¬ 
nand VI. This new palace is perhaps the grandeli and 
molt fumptuous of any in Europe; it is fquare, and built 
of white ftone, on the molt elevated extremity of the 
town ; the front is four hundred feet in length, and is of 
three ftories in height; each of twenty-one windows; on- 
the top is a baluttrade, ornamented with ftone vafes. 
There are five doors in front; over the middle door is a 
gallery fupported by four columns; at the back front is- 
a grand flight of lteps. The architect of this palace was 
Sacchett-i, an Italian. The grand cortile is a fquare of 195 
feet. The dome of the chapel is fupported by fixteen 
marble columns. The grand laloon of ftate is izo feet in 
length, and has five windows in front; it is entirely hung 
with crimfon velvet, richly embroidered with gold, and 
farther ornamented with twelve of the looking-glades 
made at Sr. Ildefonfo, each ten feet high, and in magni¬ 
ficent frames, and with twelve tables of the finelt Spaniff* 
marbles. The ceiling was painted in frefco, in the year 
2764, by Tiepolo the Venetian. There are a great num-: 
ber of paintings, by the moft celebrated matters: among 
which we may feleCt an Adoration of the Magi, by Rubens, 
and a Bearing of the Crofs by Raphael. Among the- 
paintings we may alfo feleCt a piece by Titian, of Venus- 
binding the Eyes of Cupid,.an Apotheofis of. Hercules by; 
Mengs,. and an Adoration of the Shepherds by the fames 
matter. There is alfo a group of nymphs dancing round 
the ftatue of Priapus by Poullin. One of the moft mag¬ 
nificent apartments in the palace is the king’s hall, in 
which his majefty gives public audience to foreign ambaf- 
fadors; it is a double cube of ninety feet, hung with 
crimfon velvet, and adorned with a, lumptuous canopy 
and painted ceiling; it is embelliihed with mirrors of an- 
extraordinary fize, with feveral antique heads, and a fmall. 
equettrian ftatue of Philip II. in gilded bronze. The pa¬ 
lace is the repofitory of the crown jewels and regalia y 
among which we may mention a i'uperb throne with its* 
i- canopy^ 
