The huge building of Conde Duque Center It was built as a barracks. It is a baroque building (churrigueresque style) that began to be built in 1717 by Pedro de Ribera. The chosen place, next to the walls of the Liria Palace, residence of the House of Alba.

Ribera designed a very striking cover, which was the most important ornament of the construction and which was highly criticized both at the time and much later. Was Philip V, first Bourbon, who ordered the magistrate Marquis of Vadillo to make "the factory and works needed in the barracks of its royal Corps Guards, next to the convent of Our Lady of the Afflicted, to accommodate 600 guards and 400 horses". The elite guard of the kings.

A huge space in the shape of a parallelogram that consists of three rectangular patios, the central one being the largest.

There is no unanimity regarding the name of the barracks. For Romans Innkeeper was due to the count-duke of Olivares, valid of Philip IV. Another option says that the name comes from its settlement on a plot of land that was the palace of the Count of Aranda and Duke of Peñaranda.

The barracks became a military academy in the 1869th century. Later it was an astronomical observatory, a prison and was part of the optical telegraph communications system, devised in Spain in the XNUMXth century. The telegraphy tower was number one on the Castilla Line, which connected Madrid with Irún. A fire almost destroyed the Conde Duque Barracks in XNUMX, and six years later it was on the verge of being demolished.

In 1969 the building stopped having military use, and began to be rehabilitated by the architect Julio Cano Lasso, commissioned by the Madrid City Council. In 1975, the pickaxe once again hovered over the old barracks. There was a plan to tear it down and build an opera building.

It survived, and today the Conde Duque Barracks is a fort dedicated to culture. It treasures great cultural gems, it is also a municipal library, it houses vinyl collections, the Villa Archive (with the Charter of 1202), the Historical Library, the Municipal Newspaper Archive, the Musical Library and the Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art.

As if that were not enough, it offers concerts, exhibitions and a varied cultural offering. It has become the driving force of the neighborhood, offering multiple leisure activities, pleasant cafes and a very welcoming atmosphere.

A abrazo.