Temple of Debod

This is an Egyptian temple dating back to the 2nd century BC, transported to Madrid’s Cuartel de la Montaña Park. The temple was donated to Spain by the Egyptian government to save it from floods following the construction of the great Aswan Dam.

Works on the temple began at the beginning of the 2nd century BC at the orders of the Meroë King Adijalamani, who built a chapel dedicated to the god Amun and the goddess Isis. This chapel was decorated with high reliefs. Subsequent kings of the Ptolemaic dynasty built new rooms around the original core, thereby enlarging the temple. After Egypt was annexed by the Roman Empire, the emperors Augustus and Tiberius – and possibly Hadrian, too – finished off the construction and decoration of the building.

In the 6th century AD, following Nubia’s conversion to Christianity, the temple was sealed off and abandoned. In the 20th century, owing to the construction of the dam, the Egyptian government gave the temple as a gift to the city of Madrid and it was transported and rebuilt stone by stone in its current location. It was opened to the public in 1972. The reconstruction in Madrid kept the building’s original orientation; that is to say, from East to West. To help visitors understand the meaning of this magnificent location, its decorative motifs and its history, scale models and videos can be seen and audiovisual material is projected on the walls.

The temple and its gardens are located on the site where the Cuartel de la Montaña stood, the military building constructed between 1860 and 1863 on what was known as Mount Príncipe Pío, where Napoleon’s French troops shot the rebels of the uprising of 2 May 1808, a scene that was portrayed in the famous painting by Goya The Third of May 1808 or The Execution.  A century later, it was also the scene of the military uprising in July 1936, which would lead to the Spanish Civil War.  During the conflict, the barracks was practically destroyed and it was later demolished.