Iglesia de San Sebastián

The records of the church in front of you are filled with prime ministers, architects, actors and even a famous robber, because for centuries this was the parish of Madrid's celebrities, the place where everyone in the neighbourhood was baptised, married and buried, from the playwright Lope de Vega to the bandit Luis Candelas.

From the outside the first thing you notice is the tower, which seems to stop halfway up, and that's exactly what happened, because the church has stood here on the old road to Atocha since the middle of the sixteenth century, and on the night of 19 to 20 November 1936 a bomb destroyed it. During the restoration, which lasted until 1959, the architect turned the building around and left the tower unfinished.

This church also held the right of asylum, which meant that anyone wanted by the law was safe within these walls.

Entry is free, from half past nine to one and again from six to half past eight, so in the middle of the day the door stays shut. If you find it open, a second story waits inside, about two chapels and a grave that no one can point to any more.