Matadero Madrid: From Slaughterhouse to Arts Factory
Why is it significant?
Walk into the central plaza of the Matadero and turn around slowly: long pavilions of red brick trimmed with white and green-glazed tiles, a clock tower, iron gates, and people on the benches with laptops, coffees and skateboards, in a place built to process cattle.
Key Facts
| Place | Matadero Madrid: From Slaughterhouse to Arts Factory |
|---|---|
| Address | Paseo de la Chopera 14, 28045 Madrid, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 40.39170, -3.69830 |
| Part of Walk | Madrid Río: Royal Bridges, a Buried Motorway and the Slaughterhouse Turned Arts Factory |
| Generated | Generated |
Walk into the central plaza of the Matadero and turn around slowly: long pavilions of red brick trimmed with white and green-glazed tiles, a clock tower, iron gates, and people on the benches with laptops, coffees and skateboards, in a place built to process cattle.
This was Madrid's municipal slaughterhouse and livestock market, designed by the city architect Luis Bellido and built from 1911, on what was then the southern edge of the city, beside the river and the railway. Bellido dressed a factory in neo-Mudéjar style, with brick and ceramic that echo the Islamic-influenced architecture of medieval Spain, and he arranged the pavilions like a small town, with streets between them, so that animals, workers and carts each had their own route.
For most of the twentieth century this was a grim, noisy, essential place. Herds arrived by rail and on foot, the market traded, and meat left for the whole city every morning. The slaughterhouse finally closed in 1996, and for years the great sheds stood empty, too beautiful to demolish and too big to know what to do with.
The answer, from the mid-2000s, was culture. The halls were converted one by one into an arts centre: Nave 16 for large exhibitions and installations, the Naves del Español theatre, and the Cineteca, a cinema devoted largely to documentary film. The building that once held the clock, the Casa del Reloj, now houses the district council of Arganzuela. There are design studios, festivals, concerts in the plaza, and on any weekend the place hums.
And this is where the walk ends, in a fitting spot: a slaughterhouse that became an arts factory, beside a river that became a park, on top of a motorway that became a forest. Madrid spent a century turning its back on the Manzanares. Now, as you have seen, it faces it. Legazpi metro station is just outside the gates on the Plaza de Legazpi, whenever you are ready to leave.