Madrid Bear and Tree

About the Bear and Tree

Madrid, the capital of Spain, is known for its iconic symbol - the bear and the strawberry tree (madroño) - which appears on the city's coat of arms. The city combines historic grandeur with modern Spanish culture, featuring the Royal Palace, world-class museums like the Prado, and vibrant street life.

Madrid's coat of arms pairs a bear reaching into a madroño (strawberry tree), a design traced to the medieval period, when a bear appeared on the town's seal; accounts commonly link the addition of the tree to a thirteenth-century settlement dividing rights over local woods and pastures between the council and the Church, though the details of that story are traditional rather than firmly documented. The heraldic device remains in official use, appearing on the city flag, municipal buildings, manhole covers and buses. Its best-known physical form is the stone and bronze statue carved by Antonio Navarro Santafé, installed in the Puerta del Sol in 1967, shifted in 1986 and returned near its original spot in 2009, now a standard meeting point.