If someone landed in the middle of one of these two streets and asked him: “In which city are you?”, It would be difficult to guess that it is Madrid. Perhaps London would say, for the British style basements. But from Madrid, these homes have little and, nevertheless, they are in the La Guindalera neighborhood. It is considered at the time “the most European in all the neighborhoods” of the city and of which there are hardly a dozen houses.
“In the nineteenth century, there is a national plan that is that of Carlos María de Castro. He realized that the cities had to grow in some direction. In Madrid they will be first in the center more or less and then on the periphery,” he explains. The sales zone was then periphery. A place with a sale, pickers and without the current bullring. And here Modern Madrid rose. “They started doing as summer houses that they called him little hoteliers. They were not hypercaras, but they were far away. It was like a luxury to go there to spend,” Garcia explains.
If one walks through the two streets where you can still see these houses, you will notice three very different styles. The first one, Neomudéjar. Brick constructions like the one that acts as an entrance to the colony: a tower that reminds a lot of the House of the balls of Alcalá Street. It is no accident, both were designed by the architect Julián Marín. But shortly after building this set of homes, it was paralyzed by bureaucracy and messes between political parties. When he finally resumed, the style changed completely. “It is curious because the first brick houses do not have, which are retracted, with two floors and basement. They have a garden ahead and as a viewpoint on the door,” says the guide. And there is a third phase. “Then there are some more that have a different top, with a tejadito pointed up.” This mixture of styles did not like everyone and Azorín himself came to write about it: “All chillón, small, presumptuous, procaz, fragile, of an aggressive bad taste, of a cacating vanity.”
Sales soon became a place near the center and well communicated that attracted builders and real estate speculation then ended with many of these houses. “In the 60s and 70s that was destroyer because it ended with almost all the buildings that there were. Others that were stores or constructions such as more industrial or more service for the colony or have been lost are totally modified and you almost do not see what they are,” Garcia explains. And he warns: “He will be sorry when you go to see her.”
Little remains of that initial splendor of the colony. You can imagine, because the few that are preserved are spectacular, but there are many to which it seems to stay for a short time. Others retained their facade, although they were totally renovated inside. And others disappeared to give space to housing blocks. “Sometimes he agreed that I have gone and had just thrown some. They had waited for them to fall to buy them and build something bigger. It is a shame because they have been lost and I think it is because they have no protection and would understand it formerly, but now they should be protected,” Garcia concludes.
