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Before becoming one of the venues for major immersive experiences such as Jurassic World or Avatar: The Experience, the land now occupied by Espacio Delicias was part of a key cog in Madrid’s industrial development: an environment marked by railroads, markets and working-class life that today coexists with experiences, street markets and gastronomic proposals. In this southern axis of the city, in the same neighborhood, cultural spaces such as La Casa Encendida or the Circo Price also occupy old buildings linked to the neighborhood’s economic and social activity, prolonging this transformation from an industrial zone to a contemporary cultural circuit.
An old industrial heart
The Delicias neighborhood began to take shape between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, in the heat of the railroad. The Delicias Station – today the Railway Museum – turned the area into a key point for the transport of goods, workshops and working-class life in the south of Madrid. Warehouses, markets and small businesses that can still be glimpsed in the neighborhood’s layout grew up around it. Today Espacio Delicias stands in the same environment, heir to that functional and connected past, now reinterpreted as a cultural center for immersive experiences.
This 1941 photograph shows, precisely on this stretch of track, several people crossing the Delicias-Empalme station on foot to avoid surveillance: smugglers who moved between Príncipe Pío and Atocha carrying food and small goods in the midst of the post-war period. In the background are the facilities of the old El Águila brewery -today Joaquín Leguina Library- and, in the foreground, the image of a neighborhood that survived as best it could, with the railroad as its main axis and backdrop.
There, where for decades workers worked and beer was produced to supply the city -yes, the same brand that has reappeared strongly in recent years and that many of us now inevitably associate with the Territory of The Blaze-, there are now reading rooms, archives and cultural programming.
Other neighborhood spaces
A little further north, in the Embajadores area, the old Tobacco Factory -a.k.a. the Tabacalera- completes this map of workers’ memory. It was one of the great work centers of the cigarette-makers in Madrid, women who were destined to these tasks because it was considered a meticulous trade, almost a manual craft. Today this same building functions as a cultural and creative space (although it has been under construction for some years) and is another example of how places linked to industry and female labor are now inhabited in a different way.
Something similar happens with La Casa Encendida, installed in a building that at the beginning of the 20th century was the headquarters of the Monte de Piedad and Caja de Ahorros de Madrid. It is hard to imagine that that place designed for loans and savings would end up being one of the favorite venues for EP releases like those of BB Trickz or for festivals like Puwerty, curated every year by people under 26.
The contemporary Delicias
The surroundings of the old Delicias Station have ended up becoming a recurring backdrop for cultural plans and entertainment. The Railway Museum, which in addition to having a display of locomotives and historical pieces, also functions as a living space: it hosts events such as the Mercado de Motores, one of the most popular markets in the city, which returns periodically. And just a few steps away, outside the museum grounds, is Espacio Delicias, one of the usual venues for immersive experiences in Madrid.
What is Espacio Delicias today
Since 2021, Espacio Delicias has been operating as a large cultural venue in the Arganzuela district, designed to host exhibitions and large-format immersive experiences. It is currently hosting Jurassic World: The Experience and Avatar: The Experience, two productions that have put the area on the map of family plans for locals.
In the case of Avatar: The Experience, the visit is planned as a progressive tour that unfolds room by room. It all starts at the Pandoran Research Foundation, where life in Pandora is introduced -its tribes, fauna and flora- and, from there, it goes through different immersive spaces that build that ecosystem with scenery, projections and sound. Along the way, very physical details appear, such as a banshee animatronic and offspring of some of the moon’s creatures, until reaching a final, more sensory section that closes the itinerary.
The gastronomic proposal of the Delicias neighborhood
The Delicias area also functions as a good gastronomic territory. The Espacio Delicias bar itself allows you to extend your visit by having a drink without leaving the premises, and in the surrounding area there are reliable stops such as Magasand Delicias, Bite Me Café -where the well-known vegan donuts come from-, neighborhood bars such as Toboggan or quiet (but viral) cafés such as La Pava, which complete the plan before or after any immersive experience.
On the same route is Infinito Delicias (c/ Doña Juana, 5), a complex dedicated to culture, cuisine and innovation that operates as a meeting point for the neighborhood: here coexist workshops, urban gardens, cultural programming and projects that connect art and sustainable food. Among its lines of work, it will also soon offer “eco-catering” for events held in the space itself and is preparing initiatives such as the Beta Kitchen, designed as a laboratory for experimenting and developing gastronomic proposals.