Palacio de los Condes de Guevara

Palacio de los Condes de Guevara faces Plaza de Santa Bárbara in Madrid, right on the border between the Chueca and Justicia neighborhoods, a short walk from Alonso Martínez. It's the kind of Madrid palace that's easy to walk past without noticing — until you catch its corner towers and ironwork balconies standing out against the surrounding blocks.

What will you see there?

The building went up in 1920, designed by architect Joaquín Pla Laporta for the Guevara counts. Its style is neo-baroque: three floors over a tall basement level, corner turrets, ornate railings, and wrought-iron balconies. The façade is symmetrical, with a clearly marked main entrance facing the square — and the whole structure is surprisingly large for its footprint, since the plot covers more than 11,500 square meters.

Today the palace works as an office building for a banking institution, so the interior isn't open to visitors. In practice, seeing it means admiring the façade from the square and the surrounding streets — which is enough to appreciate the stonework and metalwork up close.

Why does this site have such an unusual backstory?

The land the palace stands on was occupied, until the late 19th century, by the Saladero prison. That earlier building was designed under Charles III by architect Ventura Rodríguez, originally as a slaughterhouse and salted-meat curing facility; only around 1831 did it start functioning as a men's prison. The Saladero was evacuated on the night of May 9–10, 1884, and demolished in 1888, clearing the ground for the palatial and residential buildings that now define this part of Madrid.

The Guevara family palace itself passed to state control in 1939, right after the Spanish Civil War, when it was expropriated and adapted for banking use. That financial role has stuck ever since: through the second half of the 20th century it housed a bank branch, and in 2018 the Swiss bank UBS bought the property from BBVA for roughly 120 million euros.

How do you get there?

The closest metro stop is Alonso Martínez (lines 4, 5, and 10), a 5–7 minute walk from Plaza de Santa Bárbara. Colón station on line 4 is also within easy reach. The location sits centrally, close to Paseo de Recoletos and Malasaña, so it's simple to fold a look at the palace into a wider walk through that part of the city.

When is the best time to visit?

Plaza de Santa Bárbara and its surrounding greenery look their best in spring and autumn, when the light flatters the façade's detail and temperatures are comfortable for lingering outside. Madrid summers can get intensely hot at midday, so early morning or early evening are better windows for taking in the building.

Frequently asked questions

Can you go inside the palace? No — the building is used as bank offices and isn't open to the public. You can only view it from outside.

Who designed the palace? Architect Joaquín Pla Laporta, commissioned by the Guevara counts, in 1920.

What stood on the site before the palace? The Saladero prison, originally a slaughterhouse and meat-curing facility designed by Ventura Rodríguez under Charles III; it was demolished in 1888.

What's the easiest way to get there? Take the metro to Alonso Martínez (lines 4, 5, 10), then walk a few minutes to Plaza de Santa Bárbara.