Conde Duque Cultural Center
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The Conde-Duque-Kulturzentrum (Spanish Centro Cultural Conde-Duque ) in Madrid is a communal cultural center for visual and performing contemporary art and the seat of various archives and libraries. The center is located on Conde Duque Street in the former Conde Duque Barracks ( Cuartel del Conde-Duque ), a monumental Baroque building complex from the early 18th century designed by the architect Pedro de Ribera .
building
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The first Spanish Bourbon king , Felipe V , had the architect Pedro de Ribera build a barracks with space for "600 guards and 400 horses" for his elite Guardias de Corps unit on the outskirts of the city and not far from the royal palace from the end of 1717 . The building is considered to be one of the last great examples of Baroque architecture before the introduction of the Italian style, for example in the construction of the new Royal Palace (1738–1755). Pedro de Ribera designed a large building with a rectangular floor plan to balance functionality with aesthetics. For a long time it was the largest building in the capital with an area of more than 25,000 m², a 228 m long facade, a monumental Baroque facade in the late Baroque Churriguera style, a large central courtyard, two side courtyards and spacious stables. In 1730 the barracks were largely completed.
In the 19th century, the building complex served as a military academy, an astronomical observatory and part of an optical telegraph system (one of the towers served as telegraph tower 1 for the connection through Castile to Irún on the French border). A devastating fire in 1869 destroyed the upper floors and almost the tower on the west facade (which was also used as a prison) and then led to the building becoming increasingly dilapidated.
In 1969 the military handed over the building complex to the city council of Madrid; nevertheless a demolition was considered at times, u. a. to build a new opera building here. In 1977 the building was placed under protection, which heralded its use as a cultural center from 1984. From 2004 the building will be completely renovated, restored to its original condition and rebuilt; the reopening took place in 2011.
Todays use
Since the 1990s, the building has housed institutions such as the Madrid Municipal Archives, the Municipal Historical Library, the Víctor Espinós Music Library, the Madrid Municipal Newspaper Library, a Conde Duque Public Library and the Museum of Contemporary Art; The center also has exhibition and stage / performance rooms.
Web links
- Cultural Center website (Spanish)