A man everyone calls the Professor gathers a gang of criminals, dresses them in red jumpsuits and Dalí masks, and sends them into Spain's Royal Mint, not to steal money but to print their own. Then, when one of their own is captured, they come back for something bigger: the Bank of Spain and its gold. That's La casa de papel, known in English as Money Heist, created by Álex Pina. Its first two parts aired on Spain's Antena 3 in 2017, and Netflix carried Parts 3 to 5 from 2019 to 2021. This walk follows the heists through Madrid, but here's the secret: neither the Mint nor the Bank on screen is the real building. We start at the façade that played the Bank, flash back to the one that played the Mint, walk down Calle de Serrano past two stops of real Madrid money history, and then stand outside the real Bank of Spain, which the show never filmed. We finish at Plaza del Callao, where the sky rained banknotes. Spoilers throughout. This is an unofficial fan walk, not made with or endorsed by Netflix or the show's makers. It's one of our self-guided walking tours, about 5.7 kilometers from Nuevos Ministerios to Plaza del Callao.

Before you set off

Allow two to two and a half hours, with about 80 minutes of walking. The route is long but easy, with no big climbs, on wide city sidewalks, with one long, straight stretch down Calle de Serrano. Start at the Nuevos Ministerios Metro station and finish at Callao, which has its own Metro station. Madrid summers are hot, and Serrano has only patchy shade, so in July and August start early or walk in the evening. The National Archaeological Museum is closed on Mondays and charges entry. The rooftop terrace of the Círculo de Bellas Artes charges a fee and keeps set hours. Prices and hours change, so check before you go. Two of the stops, the CSIC and Nuevos Ministerios, are working public institutions, so enjoy them from the street and the public spaces. The Bank of Spain's vault is not open to the public, and the Casino de Madrid is a private club, so you'll see both from outside.

Nuevos Ministerios

You're at Nuevos Ministerios, a huge government complex on the Paseo de la Castellana. Find the long arcade and look through to the courtyards and fountains. If you've watched Parts 3 to 5, this view should make your pulse jump. This is the Bank of Spain, or at least it is on screen.

We start in the middle of the story. The Mint is behind them, and the Professor has a plan for the Bank of Spain. One of the gang, Río, has been caught, and to get him back the gang will rob the bank itself and go for its gold. For the raid that follows, this complex plays the Bank's outside. The police set up their tent here. Tanks roll up. Protesters fill the street. All of it was staged in these courtyards and along this arcade.

The building that played the Bank is the Ministry of Public Works, and it lent itself to the show free of charge. Filming ran for 12 days across seven weekends, between January and July 2019, outside office hours. The ministry explained why it worked: the complex gave the crew a closed perimeter, so they could stage action scenes with lots of vehicles without shutting down the city.

The real complex has its own history of interruption. It was designed by the architect Secundino Zuazo and begun in 1933. Then the Spanish Civil War halted the work, and it wasn't finished until 1942. Today it also holds the Casa de la Arquitectura, an architecture museum that opened in 2023.

But a bank heist needs a first heist. To see where the gang began, we go back to Parts 1 and 2, and to the building that played the Royal Mint. Head south-east from the complex toward Calle de Serrano, and find number 117, the building with the tall columned portico. About eleven minutes.

CSIC headquarters

You're outside the headquarters of the CSIC, Spain's National Research Council, at Calle de Serrano 117. Stand back across the street so you can take in the whole front: the portico of paired columns, and the lettering along the top. Fans will know it at once. This is the Royal Mint.

This is where the story began, in Parts 1 and 2. The gang, in their red jumpsuits and Dalí masks, takes over the Royal Mint of Spain. Their plan isn't to grab cash and run. It's to stay inside and print their own money, with the Professor directing everything from outside. Whenever the show cuts to the Mint from the street, this columned front is what you see.

Why here, and not the real Mint? The real one stands on Calle de Jorge Juan, on narrow and busy streets where filming would have been very hard. So the producers borrowed this grand façade instead. The Mint's insides were built as sets, and the rooftop scenes weren't shot here at all: they were filmed at Madrid's school of aeronautical engineering. The money-printing scenes went somewhere else again, to a newspaper's print works, and that's a clue to our next stop.

The building itself has nothing to do with money. It was designed in 1942 by Ricardo Fernández Vallespín and Miguel Fisac, in a stripped-down classical style. The portico has paired columns, and Fisac himself designed their Corinthian capitals. The lettering along the attic is set in the typeface Futura. It's still a working research institution, so enjoy it from the street.

If you'd like to see the real Mint on another day, it's at Calle de Jorge Juan 106, and its museum is on Calle del Doctor Esquerdo. The museum has been under renovation, so check before you go.

Now we leave the show for two stops and follow real money down Calle de Serrano. Walk south along Serrano to number 61, the old newspaper palace. About seventeen minutes.

ABC Serrano

You're at ABC Serrano, now a shopping center. Look up at the Serrano front, with its carved decoration. This stop is real Madrid context: the show never filmed in this building, but it's tied to the story by one detail.

This was the home of the newspaper ABC. The magazine Blanco y Negro bought this site in 1896, and the newspaper ABC was born here in the early 1900s. The Serrano façade, in a neo-Plateresque style, is by José López Sallaberry and dates from 1899. The wing on the Paseo de la Castellana side was added by Aníbal González in 1926, and a workshops building by Anasagasti followed in 1932. For decades, the paper was made right here.

Now the link to the heist. When the gang in the Mint prints its millions, the presses you see rolling weren't the Mint's. Those scenes were filmed at ABC's modern printing plant in Torrejón de Ardoz, outside Madrid. So the newspaper that once printed its pages in this building lent its newer presses to print the show's fake fortune.

The paper sold these buildings in 1989, and in the 1990s they were turned into a shopping center. In a way, it's a fitting story for this walk: a building that made a product out of paper, and a show about people who did the same.

From printed paper, we go back to much older money, the real thing, made of metal. Keep walking south down Calle de Serrano to number 13, the National Archaeological Museum. About seventeen minutes.