Círculo de Bellas Artes rooftop at sunset

The Azotea sits on top of the 1926 arts club at the corner of Alcalá and Gran Vía, and it is the one central rooftop in Madrid where you can walk right around the parapet. The winged Victoria on the Metrópolis dome is almost at eye level, Gran Vía peels away to the west, and on a clear winter day the Guadarrama closes the horizon with snow on it.

Photographers come up for one thing: height in the middle of the city without a drone. A wide frame puts two people against a mile of rooftops; a longer lens stacks the dome, the Telefónica tower and the Palacio de Cibeles into layers.

The light runs west along Gran Vía, so the last forty minutes before sunset send warm sun straight down the avenue and rim your subjects. Stay for the twenty minutes after: the street lights come on, the dome is floodlit and the sky goes deep blue. Winter up there is cold and exposed; summer evenings are the busiest hour of the day.

The roof is reached by a ticketed lift and the hours change with the season — check them, and check what a professional session needs, because the terrace is run as a bar and the tables take up most of the floor. Go up forty minutes early to claim a clear stretch of parapet.