Paseo de la Castellana

History of the Palace

Don Ignacio de Figueroa, Marquis of Villamejor, lived in 1885 in the old area of Madrid, in a huge hamlet, near the Plaza del Progreso, in the old street of Barrio Nuevo 12, today called Conde de Romanones. Like many other nobles settled in the Court, he decided to move his residence to the Ensanche, choosing for this the Paseo de la Castellana, the most privileged area, where the land had acquired greater value and had good communications, both with the center and with the racecourse; the land where the National Panorama was installed was awarded, which had gone to public auction for having broken up in the face of the little success of the show.

In September 1885 he asked for the string strip to be made for the new construction. A month later, the municipal architect Enrique Sánchez y Rodríguez marked the alignments and levels to which the building should be adjusted, but up to two years later the license to build it was not requested.

The project of the house-palace presented to the City Council is signed by José Purkiss to lead the optional direction despite being master of works. The building consists of three facades, the main one crossed from the promenade to leave a passage to the carriages, the secondary one to Alcalá Galiano and the third one leaving a free passage between the palace and the Ametller hotel towards the garage located in the basement.

It has a basement floor, in all its extension, a ground floor recessed on the street level with an access staircase and main, second and attic floors.

The dismantling and passage of carriages began in April of that same year and at the end the construction of the palace began, which did not end until December 1893.

Until now he has been attributed to the master of works José Purkiss, with good reason, since the plans, preserved in the Archive of the Villa de Madrid, are signed by him. However, Luis Mª Cabello Lapiedra when extending the certificate of completion of the building says verbatim: "... whose works have been designed and directed successively by the master of works don José Purkiss and the architect don Pascual Herraiz...".

When analyzing the works and drawings of both, it has been concluded that the author may have been Herraiz, since there is a clear line of continuity in his works of that period.

However, since he had not yet officially obtained the title of architect at the time of requesting the construction license, possibly the Marquis of Villamejor resorted to Purkiss to present the plans and collaborate in the construction. There is another fact that corroborates this conclusion: "Pascual Herraiz was the architect of Don Ignacio de Figueroa until the death of the latter" as Vicente García Cabrera assures us. On the other hand, Purkiss had an architectural style far removed from the classicist eclecticism of this building.

In 1899 the Marquis of Villamejor died and continued to live in him his widow, -a couple of years-, Doña Ana de Torres Córdoba and Sotomayor who died six years later, leaving as heirs of the palace their children: Rodrigo de Figueroa y Torres, Duke of Tovar and Francisca de Figueroa y Torres, Countess of Almodovar, who sold the palace to the Infante of Spain and Widowed Prince of Asturias, Don Carlos de Borbón y Borbón, according to the Land Registry, as of May 11, 1906.

The palace underwent a first refurbishment for the residence of its new owner, who had acquired it shortly before the wedding with Mrs. Mª Luisa de Orleans, his second wife. In it they lived from 1907 to 1914, and in it were born their daughters Dolores, María de las Mercedes and Esperanza. Doña María was the mother of our Monarch Juan Carlos I.

There is no new sale in the Registry, so don Carlos transfers the building to the government of Alfonso XIII, to install the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.

Nor has any document been found in the Archives of the Presidency of the Government to mention such an assignment. Yes, however, the Law of June 30, 1914 was promulgated, authorizing its acquisition and also approving a credit of two million pesetas, which specifies that one million nine hundred thousand pesetas are for the acquisition of the palace house.

The new refurbishment was carried out by José de Espelius and Anduaga, the architect of the Presidency. The ground floor and first floor were adapted for Presidency and the second floor was occupied by the Civil Inspection of War and Navy and the Protectorate of Morocco and the stables disappeared to make room for the archive and other dependencies.

There are few references until after the Civil War, but in 1921 the Ministry of Labor was established on the first floor and, later, with Primo de Rivera, occupied part of Castellana, 3, the Military Directorate.

The Councils of Ministers presided over by Manuel Azaña in the Council Hall are famous. At this stage their halls were refurbished with great luxury, covered with silk and decorated with spiders, paintings and furniture brought from the Riofrio palace.

It was Colonel Galarza who reopened its doors as the seat of the Undersecretariat of the Presidency of the Government, replaced in 1941 by Don Luis Carrero Blanco.

The architect Diego Méndez was in charge of the conservation of the Presidency of the Government since 1955. His first job consisted of a series of repairs, but in the following years he undertook a series of interior reforms without touching the main halls.

The extension of a plant that was not done was approved and ten years later the extension was reconsidered due to the lack of space.

Méndez designed a pavilion that had to be attached to the south side taking part of the garden of the old Egaña palace, in Genoa 29, to widen the Library and the Archive, which was not done either.

But the idea was resumed in the last years of the vice-presidency of Carrero Blanco, installing in the new pavilion the cafeteria. The services of Presidency of the Government had grown so much that little by little other buildings were occupied, such as Castellana 5 and part of Alcalá Galiano 8, as well as other flats in a nearby environment.

In 1976 a new historical period was opened in our country and for the Palacio de Villamejor began a time of change of tenants and with it several reforms were made in its interior.