The Palacio de Congresos de Madrid, also known as Palacio de Congresos or Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones, is a

convention centre A convention center (American English; or conference centre in British English) is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typica ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, Spain. Located in the

Paseo de la Castellana Paseo de la Castellana, commonly known as La Castellana, is a major thoroughfare in Madrid, Spain. Cutting across the city from South to North, it has been described as the "true structuring axis" of the city. History and description The street ...

, it is unused since 2012. The building's façade prominently displays a ceramic mosaic reproducing a work by

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , , ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona i ...

History

The building's plot lies on the intersection of the

with the , in the Cuatro Caminos neighborhood, Tetuán district. It was designed by Pablo Pintado y Riba, who was awarded with the tender in 1964. It was inaugurated on 1 June 1970. The venue hosted the first

OTI Festival OTI Festival ( es, Festival OTI de la Canción, pt, Festival OTI da Canção), often known simply as La OTI, was an international song competition, organised annually between 1972 and 2000 by the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI) ...

in 1972. A large ceramic mosaic created by

Joan Gardy Artigas Joan Gardy Artigas (born 1938) is a Catalan ceramist, artist and was a close collaborator with Joan Miró. Life Artigas was born on 18 June 1938 in Boulogne-Billancourt (near Paris) and his father was Josep Llorens Artigas who worked closely with ...

based on a sketch by

was added to the façade. The renovation was inaugurated on 5 October 1980 by Mayor

Enrique Tierno Galván Enrique Tierno Galván (Madrid, 8 February 1918 – Madrid, 19 January 1986) was a Spanish politician, sociologist, lawyer and essayist, best known for being the Mayor of Madrid from 1979 to 1986, at the beginning of the new period of Spanish de ...

. The Palacio de Congresos hosted the press centre of the

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy national foo ...

, for which a temporary

skyway A skyway, skybridge, skywalk, or sky walkway is an elevated type of pedway connecting two or more buildings in an urban area, or connecting elevated points within mountainous recreational zones. Urban skyways very often take the form of enclos ...

across La Castellana to connect the building to the

Santiago Bernabéu Stadium The Santiago Bernabéu Stadium ( es, Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, ) is a football stadium in Madrid, Spain. With a current seating capacity of 81,044, it has been the home stadium of Real Madrid since its completion in 1947. It is the second-larg ...

was built and then dismantled. The

Goya Awards The Goya Awards ( es, Premios Goya) are Spain's main national annual film awards, commonly referred to as the Academy Awards of Spain. The awards were established in 1987, a year after the founding of the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sc ...

were celebrated at the congress centre since the second edition in 1988 until they moved to the Palacio Municipal de Congresos, in Campo de las Naciones. The building closed in late 2012 to remedy deficiencies in security. It has been unused from then on. Mayors

Manuela Carmena Manuela Carmena Castrillo (; born in 1944) is a retired Spanish lawyer and judge who served as Mayor of Madrid from June 2015 to June 2019. She was a member of the General Council of the Judiciary. Biography Early life She was born on 9 Feb ...

and

José Luis Martínez-Almeida José Luis Martínez-Almeida Navasqüés (born 17 April 1975) is a Spanish state lawyer and politician. A member of the People's Party (PP), he has been a member of the Madrid City Council since 2015 and has been Mayor of Madrid since 2019. B ...

have asked for the building's reopening. A 2018 agreement to transfer the building's management to

IFEMA Ifema (short for ''Institución Ferial de Madrid; "''Fair Institution of Madrid") is an entity charged with the organisation of fairs, halls and congresses in their facilities in Madrid. It is a consortium partnered by the Ayuntamiento de Madrid ( ...

did not come to fruition. A viability plan published in 2020 by

Turespaña The Instituto de Turismo de España – Turespaña (Tourism Institute of Spain), is the official agency of the Government of Spain responsible for the marketing of the country as a tourist destination throughout the world. It depends on the Minis ...

, the Spanish government agency for tourism promotion, contemplated a 40-year lease, presumably to host the headquarters of the UN's

World Tourism Organization The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is the United Nations specialized agency entrusted with the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. Its headquarters are in Madrid, Spain. UNWTO is the leading internati ...

(UNWTO), currently located in the neighbouring .

References

External links

* {{coord missing, Spain Buildings and structures in Cuatro Caminos neighborhood, Madrid Convention centers in Spain