Under the patronage of Philip II and his successors, Madrid developed into a city of curious contrasts, preserving its old, overcrowded centre, around which developed palaces, convents, churches, and public buildings. Madrid was officially made the national capital by Philip III, an entire generation after Philip II took the court to Madrid in 1561. Even the city’s origins seem inappropriate for a national capital: its earliest historical role was as the site of a small Moorish fortress on a rocky outcrop-part of the northern defenses of what was then the far more important city of Toledo, located about 43 miles (70 km) south-southwest. Madrid does not possess mineral deposits or other natural wealth, nor was it ever a destination of pilgrimages, although its patron saint, San Isidro, enjoys the all-but-unique distinction of having been married to another saint. It does not lie on a major river, as so many European cities do the 16th–17th-century dramatist Lope de Vega, referring to a magnificent bridge over the distinctly unimposing waters of the Manzanares, suggested either selling the bridge or buying another river. Indeed, Madrid is deficient in other characteristics that might qualify it for a leading role. The choice of Madrid, however, was also the result of the city’s previous obscurity and neutrality: it was chosen because it lacked ties with an established nonroyal power rather than because of any strategic, geographic, or economic considerations. Madrid’s status as the national capital reflects the centralizing policy of the 16th-century Spanish king Philip II and his successors.
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