It is the seat of the lower house of the Spanish Parliament, and the building
where the Parliament is located is called the Palacio de las Cortes de España.
It is considered to be one of the finest examples of late neoclassical
architecture in Madrid
and was built in 1843 under the direction of the architect Narciso
Pascual y Colomer. Queen Isabel II laid the first stone in a ceremony in
November of that year. It contained gold, silver and bronze coins, a copy of the Spanish
constitution of 1837, copies of that day's newspapers and the silver
spade with which the Queen poured the cement onto the first stone. In
November 1850, the Queen presided over the first opening of Parliament
in the new building.The building changed its name twice under dictatorships, finally
reverting to its original name of "Congress" with the arrival of
democracy in the 1980s. The Spanish political system involves an upper
and lower house (the Senate and the Congress of Deputies), and the King is the head of a parliamentary democracy.
This Spanish Parliament building is located on the Carrera de San Jerónimo street, opposite the Plaza de las Cortes.
It is just a short walk from here to the nearby
Thyssen-Bornemisza museum in one direction, and to the central
Puerta del
Sol Square in the other.
The nearest metro station is Sevilla.
For further information, visit:
http://www.gomadrid.com/sights/congreso-diputados.html
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