Círculo de Bellas Artes: The City That Was Expected to Fall
Why is it significant?
In front of you rises the Círculo de Bellas Artes, a tall stack of columns and balconies by Antonio Palacios, opened in 1926. On its roof, high above Calle de Alcalá, a bronze Minerva with helmet and spear has stood guard over the city since the 1960s.
Key Facts
| Place | Círculo de Bellas Artes: The City That Was Expected to Fall |
|---|---|
| Address | Calle de Alcalá 42, 28014 Madrid, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 40.41870, -3.69610 |
| Part of Walk | Avenue of Shells: Madrid Under Siege and the Road to Democracy |
| Generated | Generated |
In front of you rises the Círculo de Bellas Artes, a tall stack of columns and balconies by Antonio Palacios, opened in 1926. On its roof, high above Calle de Alcalá, a bronze Minerva with helmet and spear has stood guard over the city since the 1960s.
The Círculo is a private arts society founded in 1880, a place of painters, writers, masked balls and endless conversation. But its rooftop terrace is also one of the best viewpoints in Madrid. Look west from up there, past the domes and towers, and the horizon ends in a low green line: the Casa de Campo. In the autumn of 1936, that green line was the front.
On 6 November 1936, with Franco's columns at the gates, the Republican government left Madrid for Valencia. The defence of the capital was handed to a Junta de Defensa under General José Miaja. Almost everyone, from foreign diplomats to the departing ministers, expected the city to fall within days. The story goes that some newspapers abroad already had their headlines about the fall of Madrid set in type.
It did not fall. Militias, regular troops and ordinary citizens dug in at the University City and the Casa de Campo, and the first volunteers of the International Brigades marched through the centre of Madrid on their way to the front. The slogan painted on walls and banners was ¡No pasarán!, They shall not pass, made famous by the communist deputy Dolores Ibárruri, La Pasionaria. The front then hardly moved for almost two and a half years.
Holding on had a terrible price: hunger, cold winters without fuel, and air raids that made Madrid one of the first great European cities bombed from the sky. The siege ended only at the close of March 1939, days before the war itself. Now walk downhill, south, to the little Plaza de las Cortes and the grand hotel that faces Spain's parliament.