Motivation for expansion

The city of Madrid has had various population growths. One of the first population increases occurred in 1561 when the Court moved from Toledo to Madrid. At the beginning of the century, the city of Madrid had about 220,000 inhabitants, a figure that would reach 300,000 at the end of the 1850s. The growing rate of population in the Spanish capital forced growth to be planned. The confiscation of Mendizabal made it possible to rearrange the space of the demolished churches to create new homes that would accommodate the growing population of Madrid. However, this growth was constrained by the fence built by Philip IV, erected in 1625. The wall was built with more fiscal and sanitary reasons than defensive ones. The wall normalized how far Madrid had gone and how far it should not continue. One of the first expansion projects was presented in 1787, due to Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, who presented to the Count of Floridablanca a project called Increase of secret inns in order to avoid false houses.

Castro Plan

The expansion of Madrid began in 1846 by decision of Minister Pidal and the constitution of a public limited company. The plan proposes an increase of almost two thousand hectares to the north and northwest of the city. On July 19, 1860, the Castro Plan for the expansion of Madrid was approved. This development took Puerta del Sol as its starting point. The development of the expansion is oriented towards the north of the city, the area is limited in its perimeter by a road network known as "Las Rondas" and which currently consists of Queen Victoria Avenue. Victoria (Madrid)") and the streets of Raimundo Fernández Villaverde, Joaquín Costa, Francisco Silvela and Doctor Esquerdo.

Development

The criticism would come from Ángel Fernández de los Ríos, whose idea was to clear the Puerta del Sol "Puerta del Sol (Madrid)") by creating various centers or plazas on the outskirts of Madrid. His concern for communication between various areas was just as important as the "expansion" itself.

This process of modifications was not, however, sufficient for the plan to respond to the growing demand for accommodation from the working classes, the main protagonists of the demographic explosion. The low pace of execution of the plan, combined above all with the high prices that land and construction reached in its area, turned the plan into a product essentially destined for the bourgeoisie, while the proletariat was settling en masse on the outskirts of the city, forming very low quality neighborhoods, lacking any type of infrastructure.

Around 1872 the expansion began to become visible with the first buildings along Serrano Street. In previous years, the process of modifying Castro's plan had already begun. Thus, through a Royal Decree of 04/06/1864, the number of floors had been increased and the spaces dedicated to patios and gardens had been reduced. Likewise, it had been freed from the obligation to allocate the plots intended for this purpose to public services. In other words, as the plan is developed, it is subjected to multiple modifications, so through a municipal agreement, dated 05/07/1873, all the specific changes that until then had been introduced in the Preliminary Project were legalized.

In the year 1900, a new plan appears, that of Facundo Cañada, where the layouts of the expansion are represented with variations with respect to those of the preliminary project, especially in the north and south. There the streets adjust to the existing paths before the Castro Preliminary Project and the neighborhoods of Chamberí and Peñuelas appear more consolidated based on the alignments prior to this one, which had finally been incorporated into the expansion in the years 1868-69. Chamberí is becoming an eminently residential neighborhood, in contrast to the manufacturing and industrial use that Castro proposed for the area. Peñuelas and the rest of the south, where the new railroad stations of Delicias (1880) and Imperial (1881) have already been established, which were not contemplated in Castro's Draft Project, are becoming a place of settlement for popular classes and activities linked to the railroad. The Paseo de la Castellana is flanked by single-family hotels, in keeping with the role of aristocratic neighborhood that Castro gave it.

The most relevant thing is that outside the coastal path that delimits the expansion, several spontaneous growths can be observed, developed around the roads leading into the city.

Motivation for expansion

The city of Madrid has had various population growths. One of the first population increases occurred in 1561 when the Court moved from Toledo to Madrid. At the beginning of the century, the city of Madrid had about 220,000 inhabitants, a figure that would reach 300,000 at the end of the 1850s. The growing rate of population in the Spanish capital forced growth to be planned. The confiscation of Mendizabal made it possible to rearrange the space of the demolished churches to create new homes that would accommodate the growing population of Madrid. However, this growth was constrained by the fence built by Philip IV, erected in 1625. The wall was built with more fiscal and sanitary reasons than defensive ones. The wall normalized how far Madrid had gone and how far it should not continue. One of the first expansion projects was presented in 1787, due to Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, who presented to the Count of Floridablanca a project called Increase of secret inns in order to avoid false houses.

Castro Plan

The expansion of Madrid began in 1846 by decision of Minister Pidal and the constitution of a public limited company. The plan proposes an increase of almost two thousand hectares to the north and northwest of the city. On July 19, 1860, the Castro Plan for the expansion of Madrid was approved. This development took Puerta del Sol as its starting point. The development of the expansion is oriented towards the north of the city, the area is limited in its perimeter by a road network known as "Las Rondas" and which currently consists of Queen Victoria Avenue. Victoria (Madrid)") and the streets of Raimundo Fernández Villaverde, Joaquín Costa, Francisco Silvela and Doctor Esquerdo.

Development

The criticism would come from Ángel Fernández de los Ríos, whose idea was to clear the Puerta del Sol "Puerta del Sol (Madrid)") by creating various centers or plazas on the outskirts of Madrid. His concern for communication between various areas was just as important as the "expansion" itself.

This process of modifications was not, however, sufficient for the plan to respond to the growing demand for accommodation from the working classes, the main protagonists of the demographic explosion. The low pace of execution of the plan, combined above all with the high prices that land and construction reached in its area, turned the plan into a product essentially destined for the bourgeoisie, while the proletariat was settling en masse on the outskirts of the city, forming very low quality neighborhoods, lacking any type of infrastructure.

Around 1872 the expansion began to become visible with the first buildings along Serrano Street. In previous years, the process of modifying Castro's plan had already begun. Thus, through a Royal Decree of 04/06/1864, the number of floors had been increased and the spaces dedicated to patios and gardens had been reduced. Likewise, it had been freed from the obligation to allocate the plots intended for this purpose to public services. In other words, as the plan is developed, it is subjected to multiple modifications, so through a municipal agreement, dated 05/07/1873, all the specific changes that until then had been introduced in the Preliminary Project were legalized.

In the year 1900, a new plan appears, that of Facundo Cañada, where the layouts of the expansion are represented with variations with respect to those of the preliminary project, especially in the north and south. There the streets adjust to the existing paths before the Castro Preliminary Project and the neighborhoods of Chamberí and Peñuelas appear more consolidated based on the alignments prior to this one, which had finally been incorporated into the expansion in the years 1868-69. Chamberí is becoming an eminently residential neighborhood, in contrast to the manufacturing and industrial use that Castro proposed for the area. Peñuelas and the rest of the south, where the new railroad stations of Delicias (1880) and Imperial (1881) have already been established, which were not contemplated in Castro's Draft Project, are becoming a place of settlement for popular classes and activities linked to the railroad. The Paseo de la Castellana is flanked by single-family hotels, in keeping with the role of aristocratic neighborhood that Castro gave it.

The most relevant thing is that outside the coastal path that delimits the expansion, several spontaneous growths can be observed, developed around the roads leading into the city.