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All Spain Madrid Colonia de la Prensa Gate
AO Edited

Colonia de la Prensa Gate

This Art Nouveau gate still stands at the former entrance of a 20th-century Spanish writer's colony.

Madrid, Spain

Added By
Javier Pascual Aguilar
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View of the Colonia de la Prensa Gate   Xavixavir / Atlas Obscura User
Colonia de la Prensa Gate   Zarateman
Upper identification plate   Xavixavir / Atlas Obscura User
Colonia de la Prensa   Madrid desconocido
Portico Colonia de la Prensa   Xavixavir / Atlas Obscura User
Calle Rodriguez Lázaro street sign   Xavixavir / Atlas Obscura User
Puerta de la Colonia de la Prensa   Xavixavir / Atlas Obscura User
One of the towers with Art Noveau details   Luis Morato / Atlas Obscura User
Modernist street sign   Luis Morato / Atlas Obscura User
Modernist window   Luis Morato / Atlas Obscura User
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About

This red-and-beige, Art Nouveau gate commemorates a moment in the early 1900s when a writers colony was built here in what was then a rural town. 

In 1910, a group of professionals in journalism and literature came together to form The Fifty. They were pioneers in availing themselves of the Affordable Houses Law of 1911—aimed at constructing houses for Spaniards of limited means—on lands located between the neighborhoods of Carabanchel Alto and Carabanchel Bajo. The Fifty soon became known as the Colonia de la Prensa (Press Colony) Cooperative Beneficial Association for the Construction of Affordable Housing.

The first stone of Colonia de la Prensa was laid in 1913 by King Alfonso XII. It is estimated that in 1915, this unique gate and its beautiful upper identification plate were finally erected. As an emblem of the colony, the structure embodies the artistic fervor that inspired the creation of this modernist residential complex for journalists, writers, and poets on the far outskirts of Madrid, when Carabanchel was a rural town home to the second properties and noble mansions of wealthy people from the capital.

The gate, of great architectural interest, was located at the beginning of an old street called Mediodía (noon) where a tram used to stop. Most of the colony’s houses are now gone, but if you cross the gate and walk to Rodriguez Lázaro street, you can still view the 10 remaining houses. Luckily, the gate still stands.

Related Tags

Art Nouveau Architecture History & Culture Journalism Gate Houses Writers

Know Before You Go

You can get to Colonia De La Prensa Gate by bus or metro. Take the 131, 34, 35, 481, 482, 486 buses or the metro, Eugenia de Montijo stop Line-5. 

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Xavixavir

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hrnick, Luis Morato

  • hrnick
  • Luis Morato

Published

November 9, 2022

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Colonia de la Prensa Gate
2 C. de Rodríguez Lázaro
Madrid, 28025
Spain
40.378307, -3.747886
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