Casas del Cordero

Located close to Pueta del Sol, this bulding was the first big apartment building built in Madrid between 1842 and 1845. The name comes from the last name of the first owner, Santiago Alonso Cordero, and you can see his coat of arms on the corner of calle Mayor and Esparteros.

The plot where it was built belonged to the convent of San Felipe el Real. The building was designed and built by the city architect Juan José Sánchez Pescador and upon its inauguration it was mainly dedicated to housing.  In 1846, Fonda de la Vizcaína, one of the first Madrid restaurants with a more European flavor, was opened on the ground floor of the building. One if its famous clients was the writer Hans Christian Andersen.

The central part of the main façade, the part of the building with the most luxurious apartments, has a series of gigantic order of pilasters that until then was only used in representative architecture.