The infinite versions and lives of this city make it a reality that where today is the palace of Correos de Cibeles there was an amusement park. In the style of the Tivoli in Copenhagen – a must-see in the Danish capital – in Madrid, at the end of the 19th century there were merry-go-rounds and other attractions in what was then still part of the Jardines del Buen Retiro.
This amusement park, managed by a private company, offered open-air theater, a covered coliseum (which could be used as a circus), swings, bandstands, hot air balloons and even aerobatic aeronaut shows, making the square a vibrant space that reflected the city’s modernity.
The toboggan as a symbol of Madrid’s openness to the world.
Among the ephemeral attractions was the “toboggan”, a slide for adults imported from Canada that caused a real furor. For only fifteen cents, the most intrepid Madrilenians could slide, amid laughter and band music, down an inclined plane that zigzagged down from a considerable height. This type of attraction, novel at the time, was a symbol of Madrid’s openness to new forms of leisure and the arrival of foreign influences in urban life. It is almost unbelievable to imagine that, where the monumental clock tower rises today, these modern experiences were once organized, bringing together numerous curious onlookers to watch, and almost always laugh at, those who threw themselves down the structure.
The disappearance of this amusement park came with the decision to build the new headquarters of Correos y Telégrafos in 1904, triggering an architectural competition in which Antonio Palacios and Joaquín Otamendi triumphed. Their “brilliant creation” inaugurated a transforming stage for Madrid and erased those leisure facilities from the landscape, replacing the effervescence of the park with the monumental solemnity that characterizes Cibeles today.
However, the memory of these spaces continues to peek through the stones and stained glass windows of the current Palacio de Cibeles, recalling the playful past of a square that was, literally, the center of innovation and fun in Madrid.