Basílica de San Miguel

Madrid


Hidden away off Calle de Segovia, this basilica is something of a surprise. Its convex, late-baroque facade sits in harmony with the surrounding buildings of old Madrid. Among its fine features are statues representing the four virtues, and the reliefs of Justo and Pastor, the saints to whom the church was originally dedicated. The rococo and Italianate interior, completed by Italian architects in 1745, is another world altogether with gilded flourishes and dark, sombre domes.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Madrid attractions

1. Convento del Corpus Cristi

0.04 MILES

Architecturally nondescript but culturally curious, this church hides behind sober brickwork on the western end of a quiet square. A closed order of nuns…

2. Casa de Cisneros

0.06 MILES

The plateresque Casa de Cisneros, built in 1537 by the nephew of Cardinal Cisneros, a key adviser to Queen Isabel, was much restored and altered at the…

3. Casa de los Lujanes

0.07 MILES

On the opposite side of the square from the Casa de la Villa, the 15th-century Casa de los Lujanes is Gothic in conception with a clear Mudéjar (a Moorish…

4. Iglesia de San Pedro El Viejo

0.08 MILES

This fine old church is one of the few remaining windows on post-Muslim Madrid, most notably its clearly Mudéjar (a Moorish architectural style) brick…

5. Casa de la Villa

0.08 MILES

The 17th-century Casa de la Villa (old town hall), on the western side of the Plaza de la Villa, is a typical Habsburg edifice with Herrerian slate-tiled…

6. Plaza de la Villa

0.09 MILES

The intimate Plaza de la Villa is one of Madrid’s prettiest. Enclosed on three sides by wonderfully preserved examples of 17th-century barroco madrileño …

7. Jardín del Príncipe Anglona

0.11 MILES

Down the bottom (at the northern side) of the Plaza de la Paja is the walled 18th-century Jardín del Príncipe Anglona. It's a peaceful garden.

8. Plaza de la Paja

0.13 MILES

Around the back of the Iglesia de San Andrés, the delightful Plaza de la Paja slopes down into the tangle of lanes that once made up Madrid's Muslim…