Chueca

The long journey towards modernity

Not long ago this neighborhood was synonymous with prostitution, drugs and crime. But in the eighties something like a miracle happened: inspired by a bookstore for gays and lesbians, more and more nightclubs emerged around the Plaza de Chueca. Associations, restaurants, fashion stores and small design hotels followed. Nowadays Chueca has long become one of the most sought-after areas to live, and not only for members of the LGTBIQ community. But also completely different problems arise: instead of marginalization, gentrification, touristification and exorbitant housing prices.

On our walk we will learn about part of this history of clandestine homosexuality in Madrid, places of occasional encounters and police persecution. But also squares and buildings with a surprising history. And all of that in the middle of one of the most dynamic and modern areas of the capital.