Q 01/05

Madrid lies on which river?

A) The Manzanares

B) The Ebro

C) The Tagus

D) The Guadalquivir

Answer · why

A) The Manzanares

The Manzanares was hemmed in by a ring road until the city buried the traffic in tunnels and opened the banks as the Madrid Río park.

Q 02/05

Madrid stands about 650 metres above sea level, but which of these European capitals stands higher still?

A) Sarajevo

B) Andorra la Vella

C) Luxembourg City

D) Ljubljana

Answer · why

B) Andorra la Vella

Andorra la Vella, in the Pyrenees, sits more than 1,000 metres up. Madrid's own height on the Meseta is one reason its winters turn cold and crisp.

Q 03/05

As of 2025, Madrid is the European Union's second most populous city proper, behind which capital?

A) Rome

B) Warsaw

C) Vienna

D) Berlin

Answer · why

D) Berlin

Berlin has a few hundred thousand more residents inside its city limits. Count whole metropolitan areas instead and Paris leads, with Madrid again in ...

Q 04/05

Madrid began in the 9th century as a border fortress built by the emir of which Andalusian city?

A) Granada

B) Málaga

C) Cádiz

D) Córdoba

Answer · why

D) Córdoba

Córdoba's emir Muhammad I raised the fort to guard the approach to Toledo, and stretches of its 9th-century wall still stand below the Almudena Cathed...

Q 05/05

Which king made Madrid the permanent seat of his court in June 1561?

A) Charles V

B) Ferdinand II

C) Philip II

D) Philip IV

Answer · why

C) Philip II

Philip II settled the court there without ever formally declaring Madrid the capital, yet a town of under 20,000 people grew several times over within...