Longoria Palace

The headquarters of the General Society of Authors (SGAE) is known for being one of the few modernist buildings in Madrid. Located in the Malasaña neighborhood, the SGAE is an institution whose function is to defend authors and publishers by managing the rights of reproduction, distribution, and public performance of literary, musical, theatrical, cinematographic, and audiovisual works. The building was constructed between 1902 and 1904 by José Grases Riera for the financier Javier González Longoria as a family residence and offices for his bank. It is known for its luxurious and highly ornate exterior, in keeping with the modernist style. Its façades are made of artificial stone with soft, vegetal, and organic forms that give spatial continuity to the surfaces, with decoration that pervades everything, linking one element to another. The complex is crowned with an impressive iron and glass dome. Inside, a striking feature is an imperial staircase with a circular perimeter, inspired, like the rest of the ornamentation, by French modernist architecture.