Twelve hundred and fifty people fit into the Salón Doré back in December 1912, the cinema that opened on this spot when film still had something of the fairground about it. The facade you see now is eleven years younger, designed by Críspulo Moro Cabeza in 1923, with curving lines, coloured glass and flourishes that are rare in Madrid.
In the 1960s the hall emptied out and the building fell into disrepair, until it was restored and reopened in 1989 as the home cinema of the , Spain's national film archive. It screens films from every country and every era, Tuesday through Sunday, for just a few euros.
Back on the Calle de Atocha, heading towards the Plaza de Jacinto Benavente, a church with half a tower appears on the right.
Sources. Story: Ayuntamiento de Madrid, esMadrid: Filmoteca Española and Cine Doré; Filmoteca Española, Ministerio de Cultura, history of the Cine Doré; Hispanopedia, Cine Doré. Photos: Photo of the facade of the Cine Doré: Rimbaud77, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
