Hola Madrid!

Overseen By Gods On Rooftops, The Avenue Of Gran Vía In Madrid Is The Hip And Entertaining Spanish Answer To America’s Broadway. Radhika Tandon Explores The Neighbourhood While Living In Its Heart—at The Hyatt Centric Madrid.

I stood outside the entrance to the Hyatt Centric Madrid and peered upwards. Outlined against a flawless blue sky was a golden statue of Diana, the Goddess of the hunt—her bow and arrow pointed at the phoenix on the building across the street. While the Gods stood in a permanent stand off above, traffic swirled around me on the buzzing Gran Vía street. This will be fun, I thought.

The lobby of the Hyatt Centric is not what you’d call conventional. Step inside, and you’re in the Ondas:Vermuteria+ Lounge. A multi-functional space that manages to be hip and cosy at once, it specialises in vermouth, coffee, and tapas, and is as much the spot for a quick business meeting as a draw for Saturday night revellers. A bartender waved at me in greeting, as a row of cushioned ledges sat against a wall alongside a comfortable scatter of chairs.

A glass lift overlooks an open-to-sky central atrium that drenches the whole building in daylight. A cluster of giant fans inside it is one of the many reminders of Spanish culture throughout the building. My favourite of these was on the top floor, where an original beam from the foundations of the building had been used to make an evocative art installation. The beam was damaged in bombing during the Spanish Civil War, a wound that lay undiscovered in the heart of the building until 2016, when it was renovated. The artwork, a symbol of peace and renewal, is the perfect tribute to its history.