La Castellana:
Madrid Modernity
Instituto de Turismo de España (TURESPAÑA)
The history of modern Madrid is closely tied to the paseo that runs north to south, like the city’s backbone, and occupies the riverbed that in its day formed the stream of La Castellana. This began more than a century ago with the arrival of the first train at the Atocha railway station, today transformed by Rafael Moneo to receive the modern, high-speed trains.Near the station, the museum works of Moneo, along with those of Jean Nouvel and Herzog & de Meuron, surround the Prado Museum.Further north, in the Plaza de Cibeles, Antonio Palacios, the architect who gave shape to the first works of Madrid modernity, built the impressive Palacio de Comunicaciones, thus passing the baton to his follower in the post-war, Luis Gutiérrez Soto. La Castellana, in its growth north, shows us the first examples of contemporary architecture, almost all of which are tied to the appearance of the first large Spanish companies, the best-known of which is Banco de Bilbao’s Sáenz de Oiza tower.
History continues and the list would be never-ending, new times come and La Castellana continues its northbound expansion creating the stage which makes new architectural representations possible. Contemporary Spanish architectural history is thus condensed onto an almost 3-kilometer-long promenade architecturale.
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