Plaza de Cibeles, Madrid: free audio guide to the fountain

Plaza de Cibeles is the Madrid roundabout where Calle de Alcalá crosses the Paseo del Prado. In the middle stands the Cibeles Fountain, a goddess in a chariot pulled by 2 lions, and around it rise 4 great buildings: the Palacio de Cibeles (City Hall), the Bank of Spain, and the Buenavista and Linares palaces. The square is free to see at any time; in 2026 the fountain is under scaffolding. This free audio guide lasts about 3 minutes.

What the Plaza de Cibeles audio guide covers

Press play on the pavement outside the Palacio de Cibeles, with the fountain in front of you, and turn slowly as you listen: the guide starts with the goddess and ends with the buildings around her. These are its stops:

Plaza de Cibeles opening times, tickets and the 2026 works

The square and the fountain belong to the city and are in the open air, so there are no opening hours and no ticket: the square is free to see at any time. The fountain sits on the island in the middle of a very busy roundabout, so you look at it from the pavements around it. When it is not under restoration, it is lit at night from under the water by 271 lamps.

Here is how the City Council presented it in July, with the goddess seen close up from the scaffolding, in a 1-minute video in Spanish:

History of the Cibeles Fountain: from Recoletos to the middle of the square

The fountain was designed in 1777 by Ventura Rodríguez, the architect in charge of Madrid’s fountains, for the new Salón del Prado promenade. The plan gave the promenade 3 great fountains devoted to the 4 elements: Apollo in the middle, for air and fire; Neptune, for water; and Cybele, the mother goddess, for the earth.

It was carved from marble quarried at Montesclaros, a village in the province of Toledo, and the block for the goddess took 92 days to reach Madrid. The goddess and the chariot wheels are by Francisco Gutiérrez; the lions, by the French sculptor Roberto Michel; and the carved borders of the chariot, by Miguel Ximénez. Gutiérrez and Michel also carved part of the sculpture on the Puerta de Alcalá, further up the street. The fountain was set up at the start of the Paseo de Recoletos and was complete by 1782.

It was not just for show. From 1794 it had 2 bronze spouts, in the mouths of a dragon and a bear: the public drank from the first, and the official water carriers filled their barrels at the second to deliver water to people’s homes. Horses drank from the basin. The spouts worked until 1862; the bear and the dragon now stand in the courtyard of the Museo de los Orígenes, in the Casa de San Isidro.

In 1895 the fountain moved. In 1891 the city architect José López Sallaberry had proposed placing it in the middle of the new square being laid out where the Paseo del Prado meets Calle de Alcalá, first called Plaza de Madrid, then Plaza de Castelar and now Plaza de Cibeles. It was turned round on the way: the goddess, who used to face Neptune, has looked towards the Puerta del Sol ever since. Her back ended up facing the Puerta de Alcalá, so a group of 2 children in Carrara marble was added behind the chariot. It was unveiled in its new spot on 15 May 1895.

What to see at the Cibeles Fountain: the goddess, the lions and the children

The goddess sits on a throne wearing a crown shaped like a city wall, with battlements. In her right hand she holds a sceptre, and in her left, raised over the back of the throne, the keys of the city. The skirt of the chariot is carved with pine cones, for Attis, the shepherd Cybele turned into a pine tree, and at the front a mask sends a fan of water over the lions.

The 2 lions have names. In the myth they are Atalanta, a huntress who would only marry the man who could beat her in a race, and Hippomenes, who won with the help of Aphrodite and 3 golden apples. He forgot to thank her, so the goddess of love led the pair to give in to their love before Cybele’s altar, and Cybele, furious, turned them into the beasts that pull her chariot. Look closely: both raise their left front paw, but each one looks in a different direction.

Behind the chariot are the children of 1895, by Miguel Ángel Trilles and Antonio Parera: one kneels holding a jar that pours out a jet of water, the other stands holding up a conch shell. On either side of the goddess, 2 jets shoot between 7 and 10 m into the air.

Since the mid-1980s this is where Real Madrid fans celebrate their club’s titles, and Spain’s national team has celebrated its wins here too. And the goddess has a twin: in 1980 a mould was taken for a bronze replica that has stood in Mexico City since 5 September that year.

The Palacio de Cibeles and the Mirador Madrid viewpoint

The white building with towers that closes off the square is the Palacio de Cibeles, once the Palacio de Comunicaciones. Antonio Palacios and Joaquín Otamendi designed it as the headquarters of the postal and telegraph service; it opened in 1909, has been a listed monument since 1993 and has housed Madrid City Hall since 2007. Going in is free: on floor 2, in the old post office hall, you will find tourist information, a café and, since December 2022, the visitor centre for the Paisaje de la Luz, the UNESCO World Heritage site listed in 2021.

The highlight is at the top. The Mirador Madrid, in the tower, gives you a 360° view of the city, with panels to help you pick out each building. You climb 88 steps from floor 6; stairs are recommended, and the lift is reserved first for those who need it. It opens Tuesday to Sunday, 10:30 to 14:00 and 16:00 to 19:30, with entry roughly every 30 minutes, and a standard ticket costs €4 (€2 reduced). There are also free guided visits from Tuesday to Friday, if you book.

This 45-second CentroCentro video shows what you see from up there:

The Bank of Spain, Buenavista and Linares: the other 3 buildings

On the corner of the square and Calle de Alcalá stands the headquarters of the Bank of Spain, by Eduardo de Adaro and Severiano Sainz de la Lastra: an eclectic building whose design won a prize at the 1884 National Fine Arts Exhibition, and a listed monument since 1999. You can visit it for free if you book: the bank started guided tours of its headquarters in October 2025 and has offered new dates since 16 September 2026.

Across Calle de Alcalá, set among gardens, is the Palacio de Buenavista. The architect Pedro de Arnal built it in 1777 for the Duchess of Alba, and it once held Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus and Raphael’s Alba Madonna. It passed to the army, housed the War Ministry from 1847 and is now Army Headquarters, and on 24 June 2025 it was declared a listed monument.

And on the fourth corner is the Palacio de Linares, begun in 1877 for the Marquis and Marchioness of Linares. They lived there from 1884, although the interior decoration was not finished until 1900. Today it is home to Casa de América, a cultural centre for Latin America, with free exhibitions and paid guided tours of the palace.

How to get to Plaza de Cibeles, and what is nearby

By metro, the nearest station is Banco de España, on line 2. City buses 1, 2, 5, 9, 14, 15, 20, 27, 51, 52, 74, 146 and 150, among others, stop here, and the nearest Cercanías commuter-train station is Recoletos. If you use BiciMAD bikes, there are docks on the square itself (Paseo del Prado, 1B) and at Calle de Alcalá, 48. Walk up Calle de Alcalá and you soon reach the Puerta de Alcalá and Retiro Park; walk down the Paseo del Prado and you come to the Neptune Fountain and the Prado Museum.

The Puerta de Alcalá, Charles III’s granite triumphal arch, is about 400 m up the street and free to see at any time. Carry on into Retiro Park and, 1.5 km on foot from Cibeles, you reach the Palacio de Cristal, the 1887 iron and glass pavilion: its interior is closed for restoration, but it is wrapped until 1 January 2027 in Andrea Canepa’s canvas Fardo, free to see during park hours (6:00 to 22:00 from October to March):

Free audio guidePuerta de Alcalá, Madrid
Free audio guidePalacio de Cristal, Madrid

All our audio guides for the city are under Madrid. For another great Spanish monument with its own free audio guide, head north-west to Galicia:

Free audio guideSantiago de Compostela Cathedral

Find all our audio guides for the country under Spain.