Nave de Motores de Pacífico

Prior booking for visits is required.

The Nave de Motores de Pacífico was built to resolve any possible shortage of electrical power and provide a better service to the Metro network. This station could transform the electrical power supplied by companies and generate its own energy, using three diesel engines with 1500c.v. each, acquired in Germany. It also provided energy for the rest of the Metro substations, to the city of Madrid itself and, in 1925, to electricity companies. Furthermore, during the Civil War, it supplied electricity for residents of Madrid.

The project for installing the machinery, which reached a power of 5000 Kw, was run by the engineers José María and Manuel Otamendi. Antonio Palacios was also the author of the architectural project in this instance, extending the use of tiles to auxiliary Metro buildings, as the company image. The construction of Nave de Motores finished in 1923, the year that the first Metro line was completed. The growing regularity of the electrical supply was the reason for stopping energy production and, in 1972, the Engine Room was permanently taken out of service.

The restoration work on the Nave de Motores, as per the project by the architect Carlos Puente, included recovering the original aspect of the building, along with cleaning and restoring the machinery and furniture items, and the creation of a public meeting place.