From Hospital to Museum

The Sabatini Building operated as a hospital until deep into the 1960s, although by that time the then Hospital Provincial had become increasingly outdated and, on this basis, between 1965 and 1968 a decision was made to close it down and transfer its operations over to the Ciudad Sanitaria Provincial, today’s Hospital Gregorio Marañón. Proposals rapidly surfaced in relation to the building’s future: rather than attempts to preserve it, almost every proposition advocated its demolition.

A reported drafted by the Provincial Government, in charge of the property, considered its near total demolition, with only specific elements to be conserved such as the courtyard fountains and the stairs. The chief argument, not to mention the great expense incurred in remodelling it for a new purpose, was that the ensemble lacked sufficient architectural value to decree its full conservation. The critics of this all-out demolition proposal were fast in coming and included, as well as a major social mobilisation, the protests of figures such as Fernando Chueca Goitia (Madrid, 1911–2004) and Luis Moya (Madrid, 1904–1990). Despite these objections, in the early 1970s the Provincial Government sold the buildings to the Compensation and Reinsurance Fund of Mutualidades Laborales (the Workers’ Mutual Benefits Associations), an entity which sought to design its headquarters on this site, once the Sabatini Building had been demolished.

In the autumn of 1987, a new team of architects, made up of Antonio Vázquez de Castro (Madrid, 1929) and José Luis Íñiguez de Onzoño (Bilbao, 1927 – Madrid, 2022)​​, took over from Fernández de Alba in directing the work. At this stage, the idea of making the building a “museum of museums” had been discarded: CARS would solely and integrally house the collections of MEAC and would be established, shortly afterwards, by the Royal Decree of 27 May 1988, as a national museum under the name Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. 

This new direction would require a project of expansion and improvement centred on endowing the fledgling institution with a modern image and adapting it to new museum-based operations, for instance the capacity to receive a large number of visitors. Thus, the new plan placed the stress on the main façade, as well as the urban environment and access to the building, specifically the current Juan Goytisolo square and its connection with the Emperador Carlos V square.  

On the main façade, the ochre colour Fernández de Alba wanted to use in tallying with Sabatini’s original vision of the building was removed as two towers-lifts made from glass and steel were erected to frame the entrance and to cope with the movement of visitors. A third tower-lift was added to the access of Calle del Hospital and was designated for services and transporting artworks. For this design, Vázquez de Castro and Íñiguez de Onzoño opted for the collaboration and advising of British architect Ian Ritchie (Sussex, 1947) after drawing inspiration from the work he had done on the City of Science and Industry in Paris. The transparent enclosure of these lifts contrasted with the opacity of the old hospital and focused attention on technology, denoting an example of high-tech architecture that had gained sway in the international architectural landscape of those years. Thus, the towers lent the façade an idiosyncratic quality which, over time, has become a distinguishing feature of the Museo.  

Open since 1990, it was in 1992 when the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía’s Permanent Collection was undraped with the incorporation of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica (1937) from the Casón del Buen Retiro.