Madrid_-_Puente_de_Vallecas_-_Asamblea_de_Madrid_3

Moción de Censura en la Asamblea de Madrid (35262622445)

The Seat of the Assembly of Madrid ( es, Sede de la Asamblea de Madrid) is located in the neighbourhood of

Palomeras Bajas Palomeras Bajas is an administrative neighborhood (''barrio'') of Madrid belonging to the district of Puente de Vallecas. It has an area of . As of 1 February 2020, it has a population of 41,034. The seat of the Assembly of Madrid, the regional l ...

in the Puente de Vallecas district of

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 ...

. The Assembly of Madrid had been held in the city centre at the Caserón de San Bernardo. When a plan to move to Retiro was vetoed by the city council due to residents' complaints, Assembly president Pedro Díez proposed moving to the new site, and construction started in April 1995. The site opened in September 1998, at a cost of 3 billion Spanish pesetas. The design of the main chamber as a glass cube within a triangular building was carried over from the plan for Retiro, although scaled down due to the smaller new site. The building houses a painting by

Antonio López García Antonio López García (born 6 January 1936) is a Spanish Painting, painter and Sculpture, sculptor, known for his Realism (arts), realistic style. He is criticized by some modern artists for what they consider neo-academism, but has been prais ...

and a mural that was the last work by

Lucio Muñoz Lucio Muñoz (27 December 1929 – 24 May 1998) was a Spanish abstract painter and engraver. Biography Muñoz was the son of Lucio Muñoz, a shopkeeper, and Nicolasa Martínez. Born on 27 December 1929 in Madrid, he was the youngest of tw ...

Background and description

The Assembly of Madrid was previously seated in the Caserón de San Bernardo, a former

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

building in the centre of the capital city. A planned new building in Retiro did not receive approval by the city council, due to residents' complaints. Pedro Díez, the president of the Assembly ( United Left; IU), campaigned for the legislature to instead be built in the city's disadvantaged south. The People's Party (PP) and

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...

(PSOE) supported this proposal, which passed unanimously. The design by Juan Blasco and Ramón Valls-Navascués – with the main chamber as a glass cube within a triangular building – was carried over from the Retiro plan. Certain rooms were made smaller due to the smaller site, as was the car park, though the area was higher than at the previous legislative building. Construction was slated to begin in late 1994, with a 2 billion Spanish peseta budget. The final cost of the project came to 3 billion. The building hosts the unfinished mural ''La ciudad inacabada'' (The Unfinished City) by

, who died weeks before it opened. There is also a gallery of portraits of presidents of the Assembly, the lectern from the old seat at San Bernardo, and the painting ''Madrid desde Vallecas'' (Madrid as seen from Vallecas) by

Construction and opening

The laying of the first stone in April 1995 was met by a protest from 200 residents who wanted public housing to be constructed instead. The protest was calmed by intervention from

Juan Barranco Gallardo Juan Antonio Barranco Gallardo (born 13 August 1947 in Santiago de Calatrava, Jaén Province) is a retired Spanish politician in the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. He was Mayor of Madrid following the 1986 death of Enrique Tierno Galván, w ...

, a neighbourhood local and Socialist former mayor. The building was inaugurated on 28 September 1998 by the Prince of Asturias (later Felipe VI of Spain), attended by regional president Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón and Assembly president Juan Van-Halen Acedo. Parts of the inauguration were boycotted by the IU who believed that it was giving undue attention to the incumbent PP regional government rather than the party who pushed for the move to the new site. The building was closed from June to September 2017 for updating of its electronic voting system.

References

{{coord missing, Spain Seats of Spanish regional legislatures Government buildings completed in 1998 Buildings and structures in Puente de Vallecas District, Madrid