Madrid - Flea Market El Rastro

Amid a huddle of modest little houses, with only an occasional house of higher status, stands the Church of San Cayetano. Built by two masters of Madrid Baroque, Pedro de Ribera and José Churriguera, it was destroyed by fire in 1936, leaving only the facade still standing.

The main axis of this typical Madrid quarter is the wide Ribera de Curtidores, the name of which - Tanners' Bank - recalls the tanneries and slaughterhouses once to be found here. The Ribera is the haunt of rag merchants and antique dealers, customers looking for a bargain and the merely curious, idlers, rogues and charlatans. On Sunday mornings in particular a dense and colorful throng of people moves from stall to stall, between old mattresses, trunks and suitcases, boots and uniforms, baskets, ironware and an infinite variety of other articles - old, new and nearly new.

The painter José Gutiérrez Solana and the writer Gómez de la Serna immortalized this curious world in their genre pieces.

Near the Iglesia de San Cayetano is the Real Fábrica de Tabacos, built in 1790. This was one of the earliest industrial establishments in Madrid, employing 800 women and forming the main source of employment in the Rastro quarter.