The emblematic Palace of Cibeles, former headquarters of the Spanish Postal and Telegraph Society and today the Town Hall, has turned 100 years old, and in De Salas We wanted to review part of its history. Of course, the years do not seem to pass by this wonderful building in the capital of Madrid, since it has remained practically the same since its inauguration in 1919.
At a time when palaces were no longer in fashion, this one became a reference for Madrid and today we cannot imagine a panoramic view of the capital without its pristine white façade. To give it even more value, it is the first project of the very well-known and then very young architect. Antonio Palacios, that next to Joaquin Otamendi, they presented it to compete for what would be the future Post Office building on the site on Alcalá Street with the Prado Hall.
“It was incomplete, lacking details and with poor documentation,” according to the writings, but the critical judgment of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando unanimously grants this couple the development of the project, “the product of a brilliant creation, susceptible to modifications and with a design that responded to the comfort of the public and showed better distribution for the different services.”
They designed a very functionalist building, which praised both the importance of the services that were going to be provided, as well as its privileged location, on land that had housed the old recreational gardens of El Buen Retiro. It took 12 years to build the 12207 square meters and 70 meters high in stone, iron and glass, which marked a before and after in Madrid's urban planning.
Critics of the time reported impressions that the design was daring and dissonant with its surroundings. We are talking about a time, the beginning of the 20th century, in which the concept of the palace as such was quite obsolete and the trend was towards modern constructions, such as the Flatiron from New York or Carrion Building also in Madrid, developed around those dates.
Be that as it may, in 1919 the Spanish Post and Telegraph Society settled in this palace, which was called, ironically, “Our Lady of Communications”, due to its appearance as an ecclesiastical building. The design merges Neoplateresque, modernist and Art Deco aesthetic details.
It has two pentagonal towers on the sides, and a dome or octagonal tower that was once equipped with radiotelegraph facilities. Along the façade we find pinnacles, originally designed as supports for telegraphic wires, as well as shields and figures, such as that of a woman with half a vegetal body that crowns the arch of the main door and which was nicknamed “The Blonde” by the people of the time.
A lobby at various heights, marble, galleries with semicircular arches with attached columns, the Cibeles Palace has undergone few modifications, one of them the two-story extension towards Montalbán Street in 1934, and the last, between 2007 and 2011. , which is when the building was converted to make it the headquarters of the City Council.
From De Salas we toast this first anniversary, and we wish one of the most beautiful and characteristic buildings in the city of Madrid to remain as young for many more years.
