Francisco Javier González Longoria, a well-known banker, wanted a mansion to install his bank and his home. He was also clear about what he wanted, a modernist style like those of the villas that were becoming fashionable in Brussels. He chose the Barcelona native for his particular assignment. Jose Grases Riera. This architect was already a celebrity in Madrid for projects such as the palace of Equitativa, New Club on Cedaceros Street, Lyric Theater on Marqués de la Ensenada Street (currently the headquarters of the Council of the Judiciary), or the monument to Alfonso XII in the Retiro.

The assignment was totally different from Grases' style, but he accepted it. It seems that it was inspired by the constructions of the Belgian architect  Victor Horta, author in the last two decades of the 19th century of several buildings in Brussels such as the Tassel houses, Solvay, the People's House or the Innovation stores.

Grases' work surpassed purely ornamental modernist budgets. His project transcended the interior and the layout of the spaces. He linked the hallway, staircase and subsequent galleries, with great fluidity, the originality of the ornamentation, of enormous creativity, allowed, with vegetal or abstract elements and female figures, to frame the openings of the doors and the mansards and to shape balconies and railings. .

It's a shame that more visits are not made, but for us it is an essential building when visiting Madrid. However, in its time it was a work that was greatly criticized and very little considered.

A abrazo.