Nuevos Ministerios

Brief information

Nuevos Ministerios took the place of a demolished hippodrome: a site for spectacles and horse races was transformed into a quarter of government buildings. Therefore, what matters is not only the complex’s administrative function, but also the very form of a large urban block, integrated into Madrid’s northern expansion and today’s AZCA financial and business district.

The project was prepared by the architect Secundino Zuazo; construction began in 1933, was interrupted by the Civil War, and was completed in 1942. This pause helps one read the complex not as an instantaneous gesture, but as a long-term urban project: it established a new state center where there had previously been an open sports space. Today, several Spanish ministries and a department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Protection are located here.

What to notice first

It is worth comparing the enclosed perimeter of the buildings with the open central area. Inside the complex, surrounded by the blocks, there is an area with grounds, fountains, and ponds. This is not an incidental courtyard attached to an institution: the open space is built into the layout itself and recalls that the site was once not a dense administrative development, but a territory of a different urban scale.

On the Paseo de la Castellana side, an arcade with an exhibition hall stands out. It shows that the complex addresses the main boulevard not only with the facade of a government department, but also with a more public element. If one compares the arcade, the inner open area, and the block boundaries along several streets and Plaza de San Juan de la Cruz, the place reads as a large state block where official buildings are connected with spaces for passage, display, and urban viewing.