Instituto Patrimonio Cultural de España

Here is a jewel of Madrid architecture that has still been undiscovered by many. This crown-of-thorns construction houses the Institute of Cultural Heritage of Spain, dedicated to the conservation and restoration of cultural assets that make up the Spanish historical heritage. Curiously, the building's own beauty and architectural value, made up of a four-storey reinforced concrete structure, commissioned in 1965 from architects Fernando Higueras and Antonio Miró, earned it the recognition as a 'Bien de Interés Cultural' ('Good of Cultural Interest') in 2001. What is most striking is its arrangement around a 40-metre-radius circle divided into 30 main segments, distributed among four circular floors, vertically connected by two nuclei and an arcaded cloister.