Congreso de los Diputados & the Statue of Cervantes
Why is it significant?
Two bronze lions sit at the foot of the steps, paws on cannonballs, looking bored with the politicians climbing past them. Behind them rises the portico of the Congreso de los Diputados, the lower house of the Spanish parliament. The building was finished around 1850 on the site of an old convent.
Key Facts
| Place | Congreso de los Diputados & the Statue of Cervantes |
|---|---|
| Address | Carrera de San Jerónimo, 28014 Madrid, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 40.41640, -3.69700 |
| Part of Walk | Madrid's Barrio de las Letras: Cervantes, Lope de Vega & the Writers' Quarter |
| Generated | Generated |
Two bronze lions sit at the foot of the steps, paws on cannonballs, looking bored with the politicians climbing past them. Behind them rises the portico of the Congreso de los Diputados, the lower house of the Spanish parliament.
The building was finished around 1850 on the site of an old convent. The first lions put here were a disappointment, so new ones were made from the bronze of cannons captured in Spain's war in Morocco of 1859 and 1860. They arrived in 1872, and Madrileños gave them the names of two heroes of the uprising of 1808, Daoíz and Velarde. Officially, they have no names at all.
Inside, in the chamber, there is a scar the parliament has chosen to keep. On the 23rd of February 1981, during a vote to install a new prime minister, armed civil guards led by Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero burst in and fired into the air. The bullet holes are still in the ceiling. The coup collapsed within a day, after King Juan Carlos appeared on television in uniform to defend the constitution, and Spanish democracy, its constitution barely two years old, survived.
Now turn around and find the small square in front, the Plaza de las Cortes. On a tall pedestal stands Miguel de Cervantes, cast in bronze in Rome and unveiled in 1835, with scenes from Don Quixote in relief on the base. It was one of the first statues in the city raised to a writer rather than a king or a saint. And he looks towards the streets where he lived, wrote and died, nearly all within a few minutes of this spot.
Before we follow him there, a detour to a rooftop. Walk north up the street beside the parliament until you reach the great Calle de Alcalá, and look for a tall building crowned by a goddess in a helmet. From up there you can see the whole writers' quarter laid out at your feet.