In the television series, a group of special agents traveled to different historical events in Spain’s past to carry out highly confidential missions. The skillful agents achieved, among other successes, that Guernica returned to Spain, that Don Quixote reached the printing press and that Pedro Almodóvar filmed his first film. The door that these envoys crossed to enter that ministry was, in reality, that of a palace in the traditional heart of Madrid: the palace of the Duchess of Sueca. The truth is that, if ministerial trips to the past really existed, one of their missions could have consisted precisely of saving this palace from ruin, a protected asset, which was on the verge of demolition due to the lack of care of its owners, first; and of the Administration later.
Now justice has condemned the senior official of the Madrid City Council who for years, to the point that in a report he urged his immediate demolition. This is the former Director of Heritage, Amalia Castro-Rial, who held this position between July 2004 and January 2012. According to the ruling, to which EL PAÍS has had access, the accused “did not carry out any activity in relation to her management” nor “any follow-up of the provisional security measures” nor “ordered any repair of the damaged elements.”
The ruling describes Castro-Rial’s management of the palace as “absolute inactivity”, which “flagrantly failed to comply with all its obligations regarding the conservation of assets belonging to the historical heritage.” For all these reasons, the criminal court number 10 of Madrid sentences the former person in charge of looking after the historical assets of Madrid to three months in prison and a fine of 1,800 euros. He requested nine months in prison. The ruling, which can be appealed, also condemns the Madrid City Council as subsidiary civil liability. The ruling also highlights the municipal “total lack of collaboration” when the investigating court requested graphic documentation on the state of the mansion until 2013.
The mansion was built in 1791, although the building existed previously. The first wife of Manuel Godoy, minister of Charles IV, lived there, María Teresa de Borbón Vallabriga, who held the title of the Duchess of Sueca, with which title he was baptized. The palace served as a school for the children of the workers of the Royal Palace, a Civil Guard barracks and a residential building. Since the 90s it was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest, with the maximum level of protection, which means that its structure has to be conserved globally and its architectural and construction characteristics, volumes, shapes and decorative elements must be maintained.
The City Council acquired the building by forced expropriation in 1999 and began the eviction of the existing homes to adapt it to the use foreseen in the general municipal urban planning plan of 1997, which classified it as Endowment Use for Collective Services. At that time the building had serious structural deficiencies, so it asked the private property to repair them, but when there was no response, the council began these works on a subsidiary basis. At a municipal plenary session in July 2005, a special plan was approved to rehabilitate the mansion and use it for the construction of 107 apartments for young people, recipients of social services, within a municipal plan to revitalize the urban center. Until 2007 in the building in truly deplorable conditions.
The sentence takes a look at the inevitable deterioration of the structure due to the lack of maintenance that was confirmed by up to five experts in the judicial process. And furthermore, it applies the mitigating circumstance for undue delays, that is, a reduction in the sentence due to the delay in processing the case attributable to the slow functioning of justice and not to any obstruction by the accused.
During the mandate of Manuela Carmena (Más Madrid) the City Council invested 4.6 million euros in the rehabilitation, although the works were stopped at the end of the legislature because Saracen tombs were found that needed evaluation and protection. In the 2022 budget, Almeida allocated 1.9 million euros to continue the reconstruction of the palace. “At the end of last June, Almeida eliminated with a stroke of the pen the amount of one million euros planned in this year’s budget to refurbish the palace as a residence for vulnerable families. This space remains closed today, with the risk of it deteriorating,” highlights the councilor of Más Madrid, Lucía Lois. The City Council has not responded to this newspaper’s questions about the future of the palace, the deadlines for the progress of the works or whether the social housing construction project announced by the mayor in 2022 continues.
