Ateneo of Madrid

The Ateneo of Madrid (Ateneo Científico, Literario y Artístico de Madrid) is a private cultural society founded in 1820 and based in Madrid .

history

The roots of the Athenaeum go back to the ideals of the Francophiles and Liberals of the early 19th century. After the Napoleonic invasion of Spain, the Afrancesados who joined the French side and supported Joseph Bonaparte as King of Spain were banished. The coronation of Ferdinand VII . 1814, made possible by the Valençay Peace Treaty the previous year, brought a return to absolutism. Much of the enlightened aristocracy, persecuted for one reason or another in Spain, fled to France and England.

The return of the exiles during the "liberal triennium" from 1820 to 1823 enabled the establishment of the Spanish Athenaeum under the direction of Juan Manuel de los Rios . However, when King Ferdinand affirmed his absolutism in 1823, the scholars of this institution went into exile in London. An amnesty after Ferdinand's death in 1833 created a new atmosphere of tolerance during the reign of his widow Maria Christina, and so in 1835 the former Spanish Ateneo from 1820 became the Ateneo Científico y Literario de Madrid under the auspices of Prime Minister Salustiano Olózaga , Ángel de Saavedra , Antonio Alcalá Galiano , Ramón de Mesonero Romanos , Francisco López Olavarrieta, Francisco Fabra and Juan Manuel de los Rios. During the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939, the Ateneo remained open and, thanks to the work of the writer Bernardo G. de Candamo , the only member of the Republican Governing Council, was able to preserve the integrity of its facilities, especially its library , during the war.

Although the Spanish state under General Franco subordinated the Ateneo to the ideological goals of the Falange party , the subsequent transition to democracy enabled it to regain its position as a first-order cultural center.

Buildings and Members

The first house of the Athenaeum was located in the Palacio de Abrantes , today it is located at 21 Prado Street (not to be confused with the Paseo del Prado) in Madrid - a modernist building by the architects Enrique Fort and Luis de Landechodas, which was designed in 1884 by Antonio Cánovas del Castillo was opened.

It has an auditorium , a work room, classrooms, exhibition halls, a library and an archive. The Ateneo has 19 sections that are active in various cultural and scientific fields. Prominent Spaniards - including Segismundo Moret , Antonio Alcalá Galiano , Antonio Cánovas del Castillo , Miguel de Unamuno and Manuel Azaña - were presidents of the Ateneo.

Exhibitions

The Ateneo has two exhibition halls for international contemporary art . The Spanish painter Antonio López was allowed to present his first solo exhibition there in 1957. Other artists are still showing their works there, including Lucio Muñoz , Manolo Millares , Vicente Escudero , Gaspar Montes Iturrioz , Maud Bonneaud , Daniel Garbade , and Antonia Cruz and Leandro Allochis as part of the PHotoEspaña 2019 festival .