The Community of Madrid launches 'El Águila: laboratory of living memories' to recover the daily life of the old brewery through photographs, objects, documents and testimonies. There will be two in-person events in October and November.
The old brewery El Águila, in Madrid, will have a space to reconstruct its history from the memories of those who knew it. The project 'El Águila: laboratory of living memories', promoted by the Community of Madrid, will collect photographs, objects, documents and testimonies from former workers, neighbours and people linked to the factory, as reported by larazon.es.
The initiative was presented this Monday in the courtyard of the complex by the Deputy Minister of Culture, Tourism and Sport, Luis Martín Izquierdo, accompanied by former workers of the factory. The aim is to create a space for research and citizen participation around this industrial site, which today houses the Regional Archive and the Regional Library of the Community of Madrid.
The programme combines online and in-person activities: audiovisual interviews, digitisation of photographs and documents, educational dynamics, intergenerational workshops and meetings with former workers and local residents. All the material collected will be incorporated into the project's website.
The first two in-person events will be on 23 October and 26 November at the Lolita Franco auditorium of El Águila. They are open to Madrid residents, former employees of the factory, cultural mediators and professionals from archives and libraries, among other groups. The programme will include talks, workshops and activities to gather testimonies, photographs and documents about the history and daily activities of the factory.
The project is part of the second Heritage Education Plan of the regional government and focuses on the personal experiences of those who were linked to the space.
The El Águila complex is declared a Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) in the category of Industrial Site. The former beer production site, in neo-Mudéjar style, was designed by architect Eugenio Jiménez Corera in 1912 and is one of the best-preserved industrial complexes in the capital.
Cervezas El Águila, S.A. reached a market share of 25% in its sector in the second decade of the 20th century. During the Civil War, the factory was seized by the Republican Government and recovered after the conflict, when a period of expansion of its facilities began.
In the late 1960s, a new company headquarters was established in San Sebastián de los Reyes, while the activity of the capital's factory ceased definitively during the 1980s. The building remained abandoned until 1993, when it was acquired by the Community of Madrid. A year later, a competition was held to transform it into a cultural space, which was won by architects Emilio Tuñón Álvarez and Luis Moreno García-Mansilla.
The rehabilitation works took place between 1999 and 2003 and resulted in the current cultural complex, where the original industrial architecture coexists with contemporary interventions to house the Regional Archive and the Regional Library.
Those interested in participating in the events on 23 October and 26 November can consult the project's information on the Community of Madrid's website, where the collected materials will also be published.
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