Gimnasio del Colegio Maravillas, School gymnasium in Chamartin, Madrid, Spain
The Gimnasio del Colegio Maravillas is a school gymnasium in the El Viso neighborhood of Madrid, built into a sloped site that drops about 40 feet (12 meters) from one end to the other. The building uses that slope to stack several levels on top of each other, connected by steel trusses and large windows that let natural light into the interior spaces.
Architect Alejandro de la Sota completed the building in 1962, and it won the National Grand Prize for Plastic Arts in Architecture the following year. The project showed how a gymnasium could be fitted into an existing school campus without flattening the slope.
The building was declared an official cultural asset of the Community of Madrid in 2018, recognizing its role in Spanish postwar architecture. Visitors today can still see how the design treats a school sports space as something worth careful thought, not just a functional box.
Because the building is set into a hillside, there are several entrances at different levels, so it helps to check in advance which one leads to the part you want to visit. Walking around the outside first gives a good sense of the overall structure before going in.
The Real Madrid basketball team used this school gym as their temporary home court in 1963 while their own sports facility was still being built. That makes this school building one of the few places in Madrid where professional sport and everyday school life crossed paths so directly.
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