The Palace of Cibeles

The Palace of Cibeles

Last Sunday I decided to go on another of my walks through Madrid going to The Communications Palace, which now houses the City Council of Madrid and was once the seat of Posts and
Telegraph .

In the early twentieth century Palacios and Otamendi both architects designed the building and after some difficulties began its construction wich would lead to a successful inauguration back in 1919. In the great building were integrated services of Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones since the project was conceived for public service.

Received no little criticism from the locals at that time as in the current location of the palace were the gardens of Buen Retiro which were destroyed in the name of progress taking away the citizens of the Town and Court (la Villa y Corte) a recreation space. In return they were given a building to improve those communications as three million annual letters that were sent in 1870 increased to a hundred million in the early twentieth century.

The building would suffer the vicissitudes of the end of the Civil War when Colonel Casado revolted against Negrin preserving its facade multiple gunshot wounds .

It has fulfilled its mission for decades, I remember the fascination that occurred to me when I was a child and my father took me there on a winter morning , I was fascinated about those boxes with the names of all the provinces of Spain in order to classify the letters according to destination.

Cibeles Square and Alcalá Street as seen from the viewpoint

In the late twentieth century with the advent of new technologies the mail loses its importance dramatically, so early in this twenty-first century began the process by it would become the Town Hall of Madrid leaving the Government of Madrid Plaza de la Villa in Madrid de los Austrias after three hundred years of history on that site .

Nowadays, in addition of being the seat of the City Council is also an exhibition hall, a viewpoint, a restaurant and a terrace for the 

A place for the beautiful people 

beautiful people , that with a rather high purchasing power, essential taking into account the prices of the place.

It also has become a place where locals can sit enjoying the tranquility of spaces decorated in a somewhat avant-garde furnishing trend where you can read a book or sit quietly with spaces connecting your computer to internet through a wifi network and having at their disposal the plugs to recharge the batteries of their laptops.

Space for tranquility 

New functions for a building that begins the adventure of a new century.








More photos of the visit of this building :
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