On the largest swimming pool complex that the city of Madrid has ever had, located in the district of Carabanchel, a new neighborhood with 130 public housing units will be built. This is the result of the plenary session of the Madrid City Council in which a significant transformation of the land on which the San Miguel swimming pools were located, in Opañel, was approved this Tuesday.
This modification of the General Urban Development Plan of Madrid of 1997 involves the creation of the Old San Miguel Stadium area on a plot of more than 25,000 square meters. Of that extension, approximately half has been used since 2016 as a private sports facility.
It is in the remaining space – the part of the plot located between the streets of La Verdad, Josefa Fernández Buterga, Zarco Hermanos and the cemetery of San Lorenzo and San José – where not only the construction of public subsidized housing (VPP) is planned, but also that of other facilities.
New green area, facilities and stores
This project, which the Madrid City Council says will “revitalize Opañel, promote its social and economic transformation and complete the urban fabric”, includes other actions such as the creation of small commercial areas.
It also includes a new green area that will connect with the existing ones in the perimeter up to the Comillas park. The aim is to achieve improvements such as a higher quality integration with the fence of the Sacramental Cemetery, an area declared an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC).
The transformation of this Carabanchel neighborhood will provide 399 parking spaces, 5,613 m² of green areas, 1,000 m² reserved for facilities and 1,791 m² for the road network.
San Miguel swimming pools: from recreational site to abandonment.
The land on which this new neighborhood in Carabanchel is to be built was in the 1960s (and for forty years) the largest recreational area for the residents of southern Madrid and one of the most iconic of the time in the capital: the San Miguel swimming pool complex.
This space, which had four swimming pools for adults and two for children, was the place where the people of Madrid went to refresh themselves. It should also be noted that, according to the rules of the time, women and men did not share bathing space: two of the pools and the meadow were for the exclusive use of women, although children were allowed to play.
The facilities, owned by Hermandades del Trabajo, were also equipped with a basketball court and a soccer field, recreational playgrounds and a cafeteria. However, over time they fell into disuse and were demolished in 2000.