No director has shaped how the world pictures a city the way Pedro Almodóvar has shaped Madrid. Forty years of films, from the chaos of Labyrinth of Passion through Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown to the quiet ache of Pain and Glory, and almost all of it shot in real streets you can walk down this afternoon.
Contents
This is a different sort of film tour. There is no single itinerary because there is no single film. What there is instead is a queer map of Madrid, laid down across four decades by a director who came out of the Movida and never left the city. Here is how to walk it.
Before You Go: How to Approach This
Madrid’s tourist board has mapped over 270 locations across 23 Almodóvar films, which is far more than anybody can walk. We have picked the stops that are genuinely visitable, genuinely recognisable, and close enough together to work as a route.
Split it into two halves. The centre covers Gran Vía, Chueca, Santa Ana and the Rastro, all walkable in an afternoon. The outliers, Conde Duque and Paseo del Pintor Rosales, sit northwest and are worth a separate morning combined with a walk in Parque del Oeste.
Part One: Gran Vía and Chueca
Museo Chicote
- Address: Gran Vía 12, 28013 Madrid.
- The film: Broken Embraces.
- Today: the single best stop on this list. Chicote opened in 1931, has an art deco interior that has barely been touched, and has served everyone from Hemingway to Ava Gardner. It is still a working cocktail bar. Order a martini and sit in the room.
Cock Nightclub
- Address: Calle de la Reina 16, 28004 Madrid.
- The film: Broken Embraces.
- Today: a genuine Madrid institution and a survivor of the Movida, opening late and staying later. It is around the corner from Chicote, so the two go together naturally as an evening rather than a daytime stop.
Círculo de Bellas Artes
- Address: Calle de Alcalá 42, 28014 Madrid.
- The film: Kika, in the café.
- Today: the café is open to anyone and the building is an arts centre. The real draw is the rooftop terrace, which has one of the best views in Madrid and charges a small admission. Worth it at sunset.
Calle de Sevilla 3
- Address: Calle de Sevilla 3, 28014 Madrid.
- The film: Kika.
- Today: a street stop rather than a venue, two minutes from Círculo de Bellas Artes and easy to fold into the walk.
Part Two: Women on the Verge
The 1988 film that made Almodóvar internationally famous is the one people most want to find, and it is worth managing expectations: Pepa’s penthouse, with the chickens and the gazpacho and the Telefónica building on the skyline, was a set. The terrace does not exist as a place you can stand on. What does exist is the streets around it.
- Calle de Montalbán 7, 28014 Madrid. A key exterior, near the Retiro and Puerta de Alcalá.
- Calle de Almagro 38, 28010 Madrid. In Chamberí, one of the most elegant and least touristed parts of central Madrid, and worth a wander in its own right.
Part Three: Pain and Glory
Sala Mirador
- Address: Calle del Doctor Fourquet 31, 28012 Madrid.
- The scene: the small theatre where Alberto performs the monologue, which is the emotional centre of the film and arguably of Almodóvar’s late work.
- Today: a working alternative theatre in Lavapiés. Check the programme and see something. Doctor Fourquet is also Madrid’s gallery street, a few minutes from the Reina Sofía.
Paseo del Pintor Rosales
- Address: Paseo del Pintor Rosales, 28008 Madrid.
- The scene: the street where Salvador, the Antonio Banderas character, lives, facing Parque del Oeste with Casa de Campo beyond.
- Today: a long terraced avenue on the western edge of the city. The Teleférico cable car runs from here across to Casa de Campo, and the sunsets are the reason locals come. Pair it with the Templo de Debod ten minutes away.
Filmoteca Española, Cine Doré
- Address: Calle de Santa Isabel 3, 28012 Madrid.
- The films: Talk to Her and Pain and Glory.
- Today: the Spanish national film archive’s cinema, in a gorgeous 1920s building, showing repertory programming at very low ticket prices. If you are the kind of person doing an Almodóvar walking tour, this is your natural habitat. Check what is on.
Part Four: The Older Madrid
- La Bobia, Calle del Duque de Alba 3, 28012 Madrid. From Labyrinth of Passion, and one of the legendary Movida hangouts in the Rastro. Go on a Sunday when the flea market is running.
- Centro Cultural Conde Duque, Calle del Conde Duque 9, 28015 Madrid. From Law of Desire. An enormous former barracks turned cultural centre, free to walk into.
- Tablao Flamenco 1911, Plaza de Santa Ana 15, 28012 Madrid. From High Heels. Formerly Villa Rosa, and reputedly the oldest flamenco venue in the world. The tiled facade alone is worth the detour.
- Paseo de Eduardo Dato 18, 28010 Madrid. From Live Flesh.
- Plaza Mayor. From The Flower of My Secret, and impossible to miss.
Why This Tour Is Actually About Chueca
Half these locations sit in or beside Chueca, and that is not a coincidence. Almodóvar emerged from la Movida madrileña, the explosion of art, music, film and sexual freedom that followed Franco’s death in 1975, and Chueca is where a great deal of it happened. The neighbourhood went from run-down to the centre of gay Madrid across exactly the decades Almodóvar was filming it.
So the honest way to do this tour is not as a checklist of addresses. It is as a walk through the queer history of a city that changed faster than almost anywhere in Europe, with a director who documented it in real time. Our Madrid guide covers the Chueca bars if you want to make an evening of it.
Almodóvar’s Madrid: Your Questions Answered
Can you visit Pepa’s apartment from Women on the Verge?
No. The penthouse and its terrace were built as a set. The film’s real Madrid exteriors include Calle de Montalbán 7 and Calle de Almagro 38, both of which you can walk past.
Is there an official Almodóvar tour of Madrid?
The city tourist board publishes an Almodóvar map covering over 270 locations from 23 films, and several private guides run walking tours. You do not need one for the central cluster, which is easily self-guided.
Which Almodóvar locations can you actually go inside?
Museo Chicote, the Círculo de Bellas Artes café, Cock nightclub, Sala Mirador, the Cine Doré, Conde Duque and Tablao Flamenco 1911 are all open to the public in the normal course of business. That is unusually generous for a film tour.
How long does it take?
An afternoon for the central cluster around Gran Vía, Chueca, Santa Ana and Lavapiés. Add a separate morning for Conde Duque and Paseo del Pintor Rosales, and an evening for Chicote and Cock.
Which Almodóvar film is most worth watching first?
For this walk, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown for the Madrid of the 1980s and Pain and Glory for the Madrid of now. Watching them back to back is the tour in itself.
Where to Stay
Chueca is the obvious base: it is the heart of gay Madrid, it is where a good half of these locations sit, and you can walk to Gran Vía in five minutes. Malasaña next door is younger and scruffier in a good way, and was the other epicentre of the Movida. Lavapiés puts you by Sala Mirador, the Cine Doré and the Reina Sofía, and is the most genuinely mixed part of the centre.
More on the city in our Madrid guide. If you like this format, we have done the same for Ocean’s Twelve in Amsterdam and Ferris Bueller in Chicago.
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