Antonio Palacios Ramilo (8 January 1874 – 27 October 1945) was a Spanish

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. Distinguished by the monumental

eclecticism Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories i ...

he left as imprint in many of his projects, he helped define the architectural identity of

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

in the first half of the 20th century.

Biography

Born on 8 January 1874 in

O Porriño O Porriño (historically known in English as ) is a municipality in Galicia, Spain in the province of Pontevedra. An industrial town, in the Vigo metropolitan area, it is an important economic dependency. One of its main industries is granite p ...

province of Pontevedra Pontevedra is a province of Spain along the country's Atlantic coast in southwestern Europe. The province forms the southwestern part of the autonomous community of Galicia. It is bordered by the provinces of A Coruña, Lugo, and Ourense, ...

. Palacios moved to

to start his studies as Engineer; he switched to Architecture, and obtained a degree in 1903. A prolific architect, he modernized the image of

with some of the mo.st emblematic buildings of the Spanish capital. He received influence from

Secessionist Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics l ...

''modernismo'', but according to Óscar da Rocha Aranda, only as feature within a wider mashup of many eclectic styles, such as Neoplateresque, Neoclassicism and modern US commercial arquitecture. Palacios, who also designed the interior of some of the original

Metro de Madrid The Madrid Metro (Spanish: ''Metro de Madrid'') is a rapid transit system serving the city of Madrid, capital of Spain. The system is the 14th longest rapid transit system in the world, with a total length of 293 km (182 mi). Its gro ...

stations, was the creator of the iconic rhomboidal logo of the rapid transit. He became a member of the

Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (RABASF; ), located on the Calle de Alcalá in the heart of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery. A public law corporation, it is integrated together with other Spanish royal acade ...

in 1926. He died on 27 October 1945 in

El Plantío El Plantío is a ward (''barrio'') of Madrid belonging to the district of Moncloa-Aravaca. The Colegio Japonés de Madrid, a Japanese international school, is in El Plantío.

, Madrid.

Selected works

Image:Palacio de Comunicaciones - 47.jpg,

Palacio de Comunicaciones Cibeles Palace (Spanish: ''Palacio de Cibeles''), formally known as Palacio de Comunicaciones (''Palace of Communications'') and Palacio de Telecomunicaciones (''Palace of Telecommunications'') until 2011, is a complex composed of two buildings ...

Image:Banco Español del Río de la Plata (Madrid) 05.jpg, The ''Río de La Plata'' Bank Image:Hospital de Maudes (Madrid) 01.jpg, Hospital de Maudes Image:Cba.jpg,

Círculo de Bellas Artes The Círculo de Bellas Artes is a private, non-profit, cultural organization that was founded in 1880. Its building, located in Madrid, Spain, was declared ''Bien de Interés Cultural'' in 1981. The CBA is a major multidisciplinary centre with one ...

;Madrid *

(1904) * Banco del Río de la Plata (1910) * Hospital de Maudes (1908) * Talleres del ICAI (1908) * Banco del Comercio y de la Industria (1914) * Templete del Metro de la Gran Vía (1919; dismantled and moved to Porriño after his death) * Edificios comerciales de la calle Mayor 4, Gran Vía 27 & 34 (1919 and 1921) *

(1919) * Hotel Florida (1922; demolished in 1964) * Casa de Antonio Palacios, in El Plantío, Madrid (1942) * Banco Mercantil e Industrial (1945) ;Galicia * Teatro Rosalía de Castro, in

Vigo Vigo ( , , , ) is a city and municipality in the province of Pontevedra, within the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, it sits on the southern shore of an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, the ...

(1906) * Virxe da Roca, in

Baiona, Pontevedra Baiona is a town and municipality in the province of Pontevedra, autonomous community of Galicia, Spain. It's a tourist town with a medieval historical center situated by the outlet of the Vigo Bay. Its population of just over 11,000 rises to a ...

(1912) * Casa do concello do Porriño, in O Porriño (1919) * Banco de Vigo, in Vigo (1941) * Templo votivo do Mar, in Panxón, Nigrán (1932) * Mosteiro da Visitación, in Vigo (1942) * Igrexa da Vera Cruz, in

O Carballiño O Carballiño is a municipality in the Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish ...

(1943)

References

Spanish architects 1872 births 1945 deaths Polytechnic University of Madrid alumni Architects from Galicia (Spain) People from O Porriño {{Spain-architect-stub