The 20th century had begun and Spain and Madrid wanted to modernize and one of the most representative elements of that process was tourism. Tourism was still a luxury available to the wealthy, but there was great demand. The king Alfonso XIII He was a supporter of the cause and encouraged initiatives and Royal Commissioner of Tourism chaired by the Marques de la Vega Inclán, personal friend of the monarch and one of the creators of the concept of tourism in our country.

They say that it was Alfonso XIII himself who encouraged George Marquet, owner of hotel chains on the Côte d'Azur, to build a hotel in Madrid. His first attempt was to buy the ritz hotel which had just opened, but there was no agreement. He decided to open a new one, more luxurious and with more services. Various locations were considered and finally the site of the palace of the Dukes of Medinaceli of the Carrera de San Jerónimo and which was demolished in 1895. This Palace was known by the people of Madrid as the Prado Palace. Thus, the hotel is located on Carrera de San Jerónimo, with facades facing Plaza de Cánovas del Castillo, Calle del Duque de Medinaceli and Plaza de las Cortes.

The chosen architect was Eduard Ferrés i Puig, who already had experience in building hotels and did some more later in other European capitals. He counted on the engineers of the Marquet company for its design: Leopold Ghende y Max Linder. Previously, he toured Europe to see the best hotels on the continent, including the Palace Hotel in Brussels.

He undertook a modern project, enormous for the time, with a reinforced concrete structure, which allowed rapid construction but was viewed with distrust after the disaster of the third warehouse of the Canal de Isabel II which in April 1905 took out 30 workers participating in the construction and left many injured, a concrete technology that was still in its infancy.

468 rooms, all with toilet and telephone, a radical innovation for the time, intercom, elevators, it was inaugurated on September 12, 1912, with an eclectic style that over time has become a classic image of Madrid, since The beginning knew how to position itself as a unique hotel. Today it continues to occupy an emblematic space in our city.

A abrazo.