Madrid de los Austrias

The one thing that I love about the NYU program is that we do lots of group 'study' activities, like a walk through the really old part of Madrid, los Austrias. They call it los Austrias because the kings responsible for its creation were from the House of Austria.

This is the Plaza de Villa (the plaza of the town), and the big building on the right housed the mayor's offices (or perhaps housed the mayor, I can't remember).

This statue of King Felipe IV was one of the first equestrian statues where the horse is balancing on only 2 legs. Apparently Galileo came up with the way to balance out the density of the statue so that it worked and is still standing over 150 years later. 

And this is just a little view down a little alley towards a monastery, with some huge new modern building in the background. Spain juxtaposes the modern and the antique quite often, so there will probably be lots of pictures like this because I find the contrast interesting.