Calle de Atocha 55 and Antón Martín: The Atocha Lawyers and the Embrace
Why is it significant?
Find the sculpture in Plaza de Antón Martín, a group of figures seen from behind, holding one another tightly, and then glance a few doors back up Calle de Atocha to number 55: an ordinary residential building with shops at street level.
Key Facts
| Place | Calle de Atocha 55 and Antón Martín: The Atocha Lawyers and the Embrace |
|---|---|
| Address | Plaza de Antón Martín, 28012 Madrid, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 40.41240, -3.69930 |
| Part of Walk | Avenue of Shells: Madrid Under Siege and the Road to Democracy |
| Generated | Generated |
Find the sculpture in Plaza de Antón Martín, a group of figures seen from behind, holding one another tightly, and then glance a few doors back up Calle de Atocha to number 55: an ordinary residential building with shops at street level. Together, the two tell one of the most important stories of Spanish democracy.
On the night of 24 January 1977, little more than a year after Franco's death, gunmen from the far right climbed the stairs to a law office at number 55. The lawyers there specialised in labour law and defended workers; they were close to the Comisiones Obreras union and to the Communist Party, which was still illegal. The attackers were reportedly looking for a union leader who was not in the office. Instead, they opened fire on the people they found.
Five people died: the labour lawyers Enrique Valdelvira, Luis Javier Benavides and Francisco Javier Sauquillo, the law student Serafín Holgado and the office worker Ángel Rodríguez Leal. Four others were badly wounded and survived. That same week saw other killings in Madrid, and many feared the fragile transition would collapse into a spiral of revenge.
What happened next surprised almost everyone. The Communist Party, which could have called its supporters out in anger, called for silence instead. A vast crowd followed the coffins through central Madrid without slogans and without incident, a disciplined farewell the whole country watched. In April 1977 the government legalised the Communist Party, and in June Spain voted. Many historians see that silent funeral as one of the moments that made a peaceful transition possible.
The sculpture, placed here in 2003, is based on El abrazo, The Embrace, painted in 1976 by Juan Genovés and reproduced on posters calling for an amnesty for political prisoners: nobody's face, everybody's gesture. Whether that embrace was ever complete is still debated, and parliament passed laws on the memory of the war and the dictatorship in 2007 and again in 2022. From the square, walk down Calle de Santa Isabel, past the old Cine Doré, home of the national film archive, to the huge granite building with glass lift towers at the bottom.