MADRID - AZCA: the Castellana's North Star

For a long time, Madrid worked in the shadows, humbly assuming its status as the country's administrative and financial capital while leaving the honours of the tourist magazines to other Spanish destinations. Those days are over. Away from the turmoil in Catalonia - between anti-tourist demonstrations and pro-independence protests - Madrid has become a destination in its own right, attracting businessmen and tourists alike with the many cultural treasures in its historic centre.

Business travellers will nevertheless have to temper their desire to visit them, as it is to the north of the city that the country's economic heart beats, in the AZCA district. At the end of the 2000s, Madrid's historic business hub saw a new competitor, the business district of Cuatro TorresIt is even more northerly and more modern. Even more northerly, and also more modern, dominated by four towers designed, among others, by IM Pei and Norman FosterHowever, this high-rise district has not managed to dethrone AZCA.

On the contrary, these Four Towers, relatively isolated at the far end of the Paseo de Castellana seems to have prompted the AZCA district to reinvent itself! Its ageing skyscrapers, designed by several star architects, are being renovated one after the other. The commercial spaces of Nuevos Ministerios are expanding. Even the neighbouring Palais des Congrès, with its facade signed Joan Mirówhich has been derelict since 2012, is to be given a new lease of life as the headquarters of theWorld Tourism Organisation.

The finishing touch to this renaissance will probably come from another icon of the business district, the Santiago Bernabeu stadium. Indeed, Madrid City Council recently approved the ambitious renovation project for the Real Madrid stadium. As well as hosting the famous football team, the new complex is set to house new shopping areas, restaurants and a hotel. All the ingredients are there for a real renaissance.