Madrid/Moncloa

Moncloa-Aravaca is a district in western Madrid. It includes several university campuses, the Argüelles neighbourhood and the huge Casa de Campo park.



Understand
Moncloa is named after the Palacio de la Moncloa, a 17th-century ducal palace, that now serves as the seat of the Spanish prime ministers. This is why "Moncloa" is often used in the Spanish press as a metonym for the central government.

The Ciudad Universitaria ("University City") encompasses most faculties of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) and the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) as well as central facilities of the National University of Distance Education (UNED).

Argüelles, named after 19th-century liberal politician Agustín de Argüelles Álvarez, is a residential neighbourhood. Thanks to its location close to the University City, it is populated by many students and displays a respective lifestyle.

Casa de Campo is a more than 1,750-hectare large park (five times the size of New York's Central Park) west of central Madrid. Its name literally means "country house", as it was once a royal hunting estate. Most parts of the park are not neatly trimmed, but just natural Iberian shrubland (Maquia). Within Casa de Campo are the Parque de Atracciones amusement park and the Madrid Zoo and Aquarium. During the three-year Siege of Madrid (1936–39) of the Spanish Civil War, the frontline between Republicans who held the capital and Nationalists who tried to conquer it, ran through this park.

Aravaca used to be an independent town until 1951 when it was incorporated to become a suburban district in the far-west of Madrid.

Get in
The station near the southeastern corner of the district is served by cercanías (suburban rail) lines C1, C7, C10 as well as some regional trains.

Moreover the district is traversed by metro lines 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10.

A somewhat unusual means of transportation is the cable car, that links Argüelles with the Casa de Campo (zoo and theme park) while offering a great view of the city.