Led by a strong desire to preserve the historical-architectural heritage of the seven buildings
that make up Centro Canalejas Madrid, and with the aim of restoring their singularity and the
original details of each and every one of the ornamental elements, we have dedicated great economic
and human efforts to the restoration of over 16,000 pieces.
Windows, marble, ironwork, lamps, slate roofs and other elements that merit protection for their historical, artistic and/or architectural value are being restored after having been carefully catalogued for return to their original locations.
This painstaking work of cataloguing, disassembly and restoration of singular elements was done with the assistance of small, very local workshops that use traditional craft techniques in the restoration processes.
These are representative pieces that for decades formed part of the buildings and which, fortunately, did not disappear during the extensive modifications these buildings underwent.
The pieces recovered include everything from roof elements, woodwork, metalwork, marble and finials that crowned the façades to capitals and glasswork.
The specialised artisans tasked with the restoration work have preserved the aesthetic and historical value of each element, helping to ensure that the identity of each piece endures despite the passage of time. To do so, they followed the ethic of minimal intervention and the use original techniques with the aim of being as respectful as possible.
These are some examples of their good work:
The restoration of the façades is the best example of the efforts to recover the splendour of the zone. These are the most notable façades: Plaza de Canalejas 1, from 1902, in the Renaissance style, the work of the architect Eduardo Adaro; Alcalá 14, from 1887, an example of the eclectic monumental architecture of the 19th century, by José Grasses Riera; and Alcalá 10, from 1943, by the architect Roberto Ochoa, of Art Deco inspiration, in which the frieze on the lintel of the grand main entrance as well as other very elaborate ironwork elements are prominent features.
On the ceiling of the first floor of the building at Alcalá 10, there are two Art Deco leaded glass windows made up of glass panes of different shapes and sizes, with a design of patterned clear, yellow and green glass with different finishes to form a geometric composition.
The artisans who cleaned and repaired them found broken pieces, deformed leading, gaps in the putty and some unfortunate earlier repairs that had distorted the windows and which needed to be corrected using traditional techniques and materials.
To maintain their essence and return them to their original condition, they were restored using antique glass and techniques from the 1940s.
With this restoration, the window in the lobby has recovered its texture, watertightness and original elasticity, bringing back its luminosity and beauty.
In another window, this one in Alcalá 14 dating to the 1940s, they used decorative techniques like drawing and hand painting with traditional pigments bonded to the glass through kiln firing. This technique, which has been utilised for centuries in window decoration and was originally used in this window, was employed to restore certain panes of glass that had been lost in earlier operations that had modified the position of these windows which today are displayed in their original locations.
At the entrance to Alcalá 10 an item of great historical value was found. It was a wrought iron grate with bronze decorations, which had become quite deteriorated due to successive coats of paint and varnish that had lost their translucency and become discoloured. In the restoration, they were cleaned and the layers of varnish and paint were removed, in addition to the accumulated rust; as a result, their original colour and brightness were recovered before they were returned to their original place at the entrance of this building.
The banking hall of the building at Alcalá 14, the work of Enrique Cebrián, will be the lobby of the Four Seasons hotel. Its most prominent features, in addition to the antique glass window in the interior courtyard, include the marble columns, the cast bronze Corinthian capitals decorated with acanthus leaves, added in the 1944 renovation, on the pillars that flank the former banking hall, the mahogany-stained and painted woodwork, and various types of ironwork.
In addition, also located in Alcalá 14, is the former boardroom of the Banco Español de Crédito, later the office of the chairman of Banesto and before that the parlour of the Casino de Madrid. This is the only interior space that is preserved in its original state and which has reached our days unaltered to become the lounge of the hotel's Royal Suite. It has been fully restored with the aim of preserving the existing pieces and recovering the lost elements of its ceiling moulding and walls, the large mirror and the fireplace, as well as the wooden floor and window frames.
