Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 06.djvu/100

LEFT MADBEFORARIA 74 MADUBA miles long, rising in Peru, and running through Bolivia. At Rivera Alta nearly a mile wide. MADREPORARIA, white stony corals or madrepores, a sub-order of Zoan- tliaria, class Anthozoa. MADRID {msL-thveth'), the capital of Spain and of the province of Madrid, a part of New Castile, situated near the heart of the country, on the left bank of the Manzanares, a sub-affluent of the Tagus, and on a hilly, sandy plateau, 2,200 feet above the sea, treeless save in the vicinity of the city, and stretching away in the N. to the snow-capped Sierra de Guadarrama. One of the handsomest of European cities, it has a very modern aspect, and is partly surrounded by a brick wall 20 feet high, and pierced by 16 gates, the most notable being the Puerta de Alcala (1759), a triumphal arch 72 feet high at the foot of the Calle de Al- cala, a magnificent street that traverses the city from N. E. to S. W. The city is girt with fine promenades and stately suburban villas embowered in beautiful gardens. On the E. side is the famous Prado. the evening resort of the people, with parterres, trees, and marble foun- tains. Outside the Puerta de Alcala in the Plaza de Toros, stood the circus for bull-fights erected by Philip V. to ac- commodate 12,400 persons, which was taken down in 1874, when a new one was begun a little farther N. Madrid has over 70 public squares, of which the chief are the Puerta del Sol, the center of pleasxire and business, the Plaza Mayor, 398 by 306 feet, the scene of the auto-da-fe, surrounded by colon- nades, the Plaza Oriente in front of the royal palace, containing an eques- trian statue in bronze of Philip III. and 44 other statues of kings and queens, and the Plaza de las Cortes, with a fine bronze statue of Cervantes. The great building in Madrid is the Real Palacio, on the W. side, between the city and the river. It is a square, 470 feet on each side, and 100 feet high, built (1737-1750), of granite and white marble, occupying an area of 220,900 square feet, inclosing a court of 240 feet square, and contain- ing a library of over 100,000 volumes, an armory and a numismatic collection. Madrid has also about 60 churches, sev- eral decorated by old masters, over 40 monasteries, used since 1836 for secular purposes, 24 nunneries, many large and well-equipped hospitals, several colleges or higher schools, a university, a medical school, a conservatory of music, many theaters, public libraries (the National with 650,000 volumes), several museums, a botanical garden, an observatory, an academy modeled on that of Paris, etc The royal museum in the Prado contains one of the most famous picture galleries of the world with many paintings by Velasquez, Ribera, Murillo, Raphael, Ru- bens, Titian, and Van Dyck. The Escurial, a royal palace, is 26 miles N. W. of the city. The chief manufactures are tobacco, chocolate, beer, shoes, boots, plated ware, coaches, gloves, and fans. _ The commerce is important, as Madrid is the entrepot for all the interior provinces. Retail business is mainly in the hands of foreigners, mostly French, but most of the wholesale trade is carried on by na- tive houses. The climate is described in a Spanish proverb as "three months of winter and nine months of hell." The temperature, which ranges from 18° to 105° F.. is subject to frequent and sud- den changes. Between the sunny and shady sides of a street the difference of temperature is sometimes as great as 20°. The prevailing winds are the parch- ing solano from the S. E. and the icy N. wind from the Guadarrama. Madrid, or Majerit, is first mentioned in history in the year 932, when it was taken by Ra- miro II. of Leon. A strong outpost of the Arabs, it was captured by Alfonso VI. of Castile in 1083. Philip II. made it his capital in 1560, when it was still svuTounded by extensive forests. From this time it grew rapidly into a fine city and became the center of the history of the Spanish people. Pop. about 650,000. MADRIGAIi, in poetry, a little amor- ous poem sometimes also called a pas- toral poem, containing some delicate and tender though simple thought, and con- sisting of not less than three or four stanzas or strophes. Madrigals were first composed in Italy, those of Tasso being accounted among the finest speci- mens of Italian poetry. In music, an important species of vocal polyphonic composition which reached its highest development between the middle of the 16th and the middle of the 17th centuries. Madrigals are of various kinds: (1) Simple melodies accompanied by other parts not containing counterpoint or imitation; (2) elaborate compositions full of contrapuntal devices, sometimes con- sisting of two or more movements. The favorite number of parts during the classical period above named was five or six. MADURA (ma-do'ra), a maritime dis- trict of India, in the S. of the presidency of Madras, bounded on the E. by the Gulf of Manaar, which separates Hindus- tan from Ceylon; area 8,401 square miles; pop. about 2,200,000. Chief town