Metropolis Building
Beaux-Arts corner tower with a gilded slate dome and a bronze winged-victory statue high above the avenue.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Metropolis Building in Madrid opens with the six-meter bronze winged-victory statue crowning its dome and traces what stood there before her: Ganymede riding a phoenix, installed in 1911 by the insurance company that built the tower, La Union y el Fenix. It follows the building's 1972 sale and the 1977 commission that brought sculptor Federico Coullaut-Valera to cast a replacement nearly double the earlier figure's weight. Look up at the gilded dome, once covered in tens of thousands of sheets of gold leaf, as you listen.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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