• in the Madrid version (pictured) of Titian's series of Danaë paintings, the nursemaid by the side of the Greek legend Danaë is portrayed as a hag, while in the Vienna version, the dog by her side is absent?
• in 1953, Jessurun Cardozo became the first rabbi to conduct Jewish High Holidays services in Madrid since the Alhambra Decree of 1492 expelled Jews from Spain?
• matador Diego Mazquiarán once used his overcoat as a cape to fight a bull that was running wild on the Gran Via of Madrid?
• Juan Luna’s Chula series is a succession of portrait paintings depicting the working class “street women” of Madrid, Spain?

Facts on topics related to Madrid

Athens

• Brigadier Ronnie Tod was awarded the freedom of Athens by Archbishop Damaskinos in 1944?
• American statesman John Milledge named Athens, Georgia, the city surrounding the University of Georgia, after Athens, Greece, the city of Plato's Academy?
• Epimachus of Athens, an ancient Athenian engineer, constructed the Helepolis, which remains the largest siege machine ever built, at over 60 feet in width and 125 feet in height?
• after previously competing at the 2004 games in Athens, Brooklyn-bred Erinn Smart and her brother Keeth are again part of the U. S. Olympic fencing team at Beijing?
• during World War II, the SS-run Haidari concentration camp near Athens was so infamous that it became known as the "Bastille of Greece"?
• the 1st century Greek historian Nicolaus of Damascus reported the embassy of holy men from India to the Levant, Athens and Rome during the time of Jesus?
• the International Olympic Committee has shortlisted five cities — Athens, Bangkok, Moscow, Singapore and Turin — out of nine bids to host the first Youth Olympic Games in 2010?
• the Athenian coup of 411 BC temporarily replaced the democratic government of Athens with a narrow oligarchy?
• the Panhellenic Union of Fighting Youths, a Greek Resistance organization, set a bomb that destroyed the headquarters of the pro-Nazi ESPO organization in the very centre of occupied Athens?
• the Plague of Athens devastated ancient Athens in 430 BC, perhaps leading ultimately to the city's defeat in the Peloponnesian War?

Paris

• 16th-century English diplomat Francis Bryan disgraced himself by throwing eggs and stones at the common people during a mission to Paris?
• French anarchist Theodule Meunier, responsible for several bombings in Paris in 1902, was featured as a Sherlock Holmes antagonist in René Réouven's L'Assassin du Boulevard?
• Bandung in Indonesia was dubbed the "Paris of Java" (Parijs van Java) in the 1920s due to the European ambience of Braga Street?
• Honoré de Balzac once observed that "the heart of Paris today beats between rue de la Chaussée-d'Antin and rue du Faubourg Montmartre"?
• Mexican cuisine celebrity chef and author Marcela Valladolid has also been classically trained as a pastry chef in Paris?
• Paris currently has more than 360 working fountains, including one, the Fontaine des Innocents (pictured), in use since the 16th century?
• Paris has held six BIE-sanctioned world's expositions, but the most recent was in 1937?
• Paris-based Naye Prese was the sole Yiddish-language communist daily newspaper in Europe during the interbellum period?
• Peter Paul Rubens produced a series of paintings depicting episodes from Marie de' Medici's life for the Luxembourg Palace in Paris?
• Philippe Égalité's Château du Raincy near Paris contained an outcrop of houses scored to resemble traditional Russian log huts?

Amsterdam

• Amsterdam has a concentric belt of canals around it?
• Amsterdam's Prostitution Information Center provides the city's visitors with information and advice about prostitution?
• Jan Wils won a gold medal in architectural design in art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics for his design of the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam?
• Dutch mannerist painter Cornelis Ketel began to paint with his toes towards the end of a successful career as a portraitist, (example, right) in Elizabethan London and Amsterdam?
• The Faun, a rare sculpture by Paul Gauguin, displayed for a decade by the Art Institute of Chicago and the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam was actually a fake by British forger Shaun Greenhalgh?
• notable former residents of Zwanenburgwal (pictured), a canal and street in the centre of Amsterdam, include Dutch painter Rembrandt and philosopher Baruch Spinoza?
• the 3,500 items owned by Amsterdam's Museum of Bags and Purses make it the world's largest collection of handbags and accessories?
• the City of Amsterdam spent €160,000 on an unsuccessful soil sanitation program to save the Anne Frank Tree, one of the oldest chestnut trees in the area?
• the Eastern Docklands in Amsterdam, which used to be an industrial harbor area, now attracts trendy professionals and young families with children?
• the Homomonument in Amsterdam commemorates all gay men and lesbians who have been subjected to persecution because of their sexual orientation?

Lisbon

• for over 200 years the Ribeira Palace in Lisbon was the residence of the Kings of Portugal until its destruction in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake?
• the 1988 Chiado district fire caused more damage to the city of Lisbon than any catastrophe since the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake?
• the ruins of the Carmo Convent (pictured) are some of the most impressive remains of the 1755 earthquake in Lisbon?

Berlin

• B-17 Flying Fortress tailgunner "Babe" Broyhill set a record by destroying two Messerschmitt ME-262 jet fighters in a mission over Berlin in March 1945?
• Edvard Munch was invited to Berlin by fellow Norwegian Adelsteen Normann who also painted?
• Alexander Buturlin, who was in charge of the Russian army when it took Berlin in 1760, was better known for his tall stature and good looks than for military talents?
• Berlinka (pictured) was a partially constructed highway built by Nazi Germany that was intended to span the Polish Corridor from Berlin to Königsberg, Prussia?
• David Bergelson was a Yiddish language writer, who believed that the future of Yiddish literature lay in the Soviet Union and that he moved there from Berlin when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, but was ultimately executed during Josef Stalin's anti-semitic campaign against "rootless cosmopolitans"?
• Ernst Reuter, after having not been approved by the Soviets as the elected mayor of post-war Berlin, became the first mayor of the non-Soviet controlled part of the city, West Berlin?
• Ignatz Urban's type collections of Caribbean plants were largely destroyed in the 1943 bombing of the Berlin Herbarium?
• Matthew Robinson, older brother of Baseball Hall of Fame member Jackie Robinson, was a world-class sprinter and won a silver medal in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin?
• Volkspark Friedrichshain (pictured) is the oldest and second largest urban park in Berlin?
• William Thomas Pecora, who headed the United States Geological Survey from 1965 to 1971, was a member of the U.S. fencing team at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin?