Real Casa de Correos

The Real Casa de Correos, or Royal House of the Post Office, is an 18th-century building on the southern side of Madrid's Puerta del Sol square. It was built for the postal service, and today it is the office of the President of the Community of Madrid, the head of the regional government. It is the oldest building on the Puerta del Sol.

Its best-known feature is a small clock tower on the roof. Once a year, on New Year's Eve, the whole country watches that clock. A plaque on the ground in front of the main door, called Kilómetro Cero, marks kilometer 0 of the streets of Madrid and of Spain's main roads.

How it came to be

In the 1600s about thirty two-storey houses stood here. In the 1750s the area was cleared as part of shaping the Puerta del Sol. The idea of a post office there came from the Marquis of Ensenada around 1750, and the architect Ventura Rodríguez drew plans between 1756 and 1760.

When Charles III became king in 1759 the French architect Jacques Marquet took charge of the building instead, and work began in the late 1760s. A smaller building behind it, the Casa de Postas, was added around 1795.

A busy and sometimes dark past

For a time a tower on the roof was the end of one of Spain's optical telegraph lines, which sent messages by signals seen from tower to tower. Later the building was the headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior and State Security under Franco. Its basement was infamous as a place where people who opposed the regime were tortured. Today it is a government office.

The clock and the grapes

The clock on the roof was inaugurated in 1866 by Queen Isabel II. Its time ball and bells mark the Twelve Grapes tradition: as midnight strikes on New Year's Eve, Spaniards eat one grape for each bell stroke.

The change of year is broadcast from here on national television and radio. Television broadcasts of it began in 1962 on Televisión Española.

On the globe

The model shows the old post office building with its clock tower on the Puerta del Sol.