In 2015, it will be thirty years since Spanish Historic Heritage Law from 1985 was approved. The
results after three decades under this law are necessarily positive and witness how the complex
autonomous regional legislation has been promoted, guided and organized in this Heritage field. In
addition, the law enforcement has brought into the scene how the numerous public and private
initiatives involved in caring, managing, protecting and restoring our cultural heritage have been
channeled and regulated, as well as monitoring the impact these initiatives produce on urban
archaeology. During this long period of Spanish recent history, cultural heritage -understood as an
important development tool, especially when related to cultural tourism- has succeeded in channeling
resources for developing the historical research projects, both documental and archaeological, that the
Spanish monumental urban ensembles were requiring. In this context, the case of the city of Madrid is
a clear example of the significant development that urban Historical Archaeology has experienced in
Spain over the last thirty years, especially when dealing with the study of the Middle Ages (8th to 15th
centuries) and the Modern Age (16th to 18th centuries). Given the number of interventions and the
important results obtained by many of them, Madrid urban archaeology is an extraordinary example
of the consequences of implementing new management models, changing criteria and operating
procedures, and also, of course, of the conflicts and debates raised regarding heritage, as well as the
importance these interventions have implied, which is the main aim of this work
