Temple of Debod

This is an Egyptian temple from the 2nd century BC, located in the Parque del Cuartel de la Montaña, near the Plaza de España. The temple was donated to Spain by the Egyptian government to prevent it from being flooded after the construction of the Aswan High Dam.

Temple of Debod. © Paolo Giocoso. Madrid Destino. Construction of the temple began in the early 2nd century BC by the king of Meroe, Adijalamani, who dedicated a chapel to the gods Amun and Isis. The chapel is decorated with reliefs. Later kings of the Ptolemaic dynasty built new rooms around the original core. After the annexation of Egypt to the Roman Empire, the emperors Augustus, Tiberius, and perhaps Hadrian, completed the construction and decoration of the building.

In the 6th century, after the conversion of Nubia to Christianity, the temple was closed and abandoned. In the 20th century, due to the construction of the dam, the Egyptian government gifted it to the city of Madrid. It was transported, reconstructed stone by stone, and opened to the public in its current location in 1972. The reconstruction in Madrid maintained its original east-west orientation. To understand the significance of the building's location, its decorative motifs, and its history, models, videos, and audiovisual projections are displayed on the walls. The temple and its surrounding gardens are situated on the site of the former Cuartel de la Montaña (Mountain Barracks), a military building constructed between 1860 and 1863 on what is known as Príncipe Pío Hill. This was the site where Napoleon's French troops had previously executed the rebels of the May 2, 1808 uprising, a scene depicted in Goya's famous painting, The Third of May 1808 (also known as The Executions). It was also the scene, a century later, of the military uprising of July 1936, which would lead to the Spanish Civil War. During the conflict, the barracks were practically destroyed and were later demolished.