The author begins with the idea that urban rivers can function either as edges or seams, limits that separate or elements that stitch together. Applying this idea to Madrid, she explains how the Manzanares has shifted from being a space of encounter to a neglected margin. At one time, the city lived in harmony with the river, fully exploiting its potential and the advantages it offered to madrileños. Recent renaturalization efforts and urban transformations aim to restore its role as a structuring element of both the landscape and urban life.

Madrid, or Mayrit, was originally founded alongside the river, which evolved into a recreational space in the 17th and 18th centuries, associated with washerwomen, promenades and riverside hermitages. During industrialization it became a degraded boundary, heavily canalized,. Particularly with the construction of the M-30, turning it into an artificial, noisy channel. The multiple traffic lanes eliminated many gardens and green spaces that once accompanied its banks.

However, with the competition for the Manzanares Linear Park in 2005, the river once again became a focus of urban attention. Various proposals reinterpreted the city’s relationship with the river: from large water surfaces and monumental footbridges to more local and ecological solutions. The winning project by Burgos, Garrido and Porras-Isla transformed the Manzanares into a major green corridor, recovering part of the landscape that existed decades earlier.

Claudia studies the river through its longitudinal, transversal and vertical dimensions in order to understand how the fluvial space is perceived, crossed and inhabited. Cartographies, historical photographs and fieldwork help analyze the 3.3-kilometer stretch between the Segovia Bridge and the Praga Bridge, also studied through its temporal evolution from 1910 to 2022. Places such as the Toledo Bridge, the former Vicente Calderón stadium site, Arganzuela and Matadero illustrate how the river has acted simultaneously as boundary and opportunity.

The Manzanares, both protagonist and frontier, is a mirror of Madrid’s identity. Its history shows how water has shifted from being a resource and a social space, to infrastructure, and once again to a living landscape. Yet several aspects remain to be addressed. Renaturalization has created the need to integrate and guarantee the visibility of referential and emblematic elements within the river’s image. The persistent pressure of road traffic and the need to understand the Manzanares as an ecological corridor are crucial issues for future progress. According to Claudia, the current challenge is to consolidate the city’s reconquest through the river, moving toward a genuine integration of infrastructure, ecology and citizenship.