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The Metropolis Building is a famous building in Madrid (Spain), French-inspired, located on the corner of Calle de Alcala to the Gran Via Opened in 1911, was designed by Jules and Raymond Février for the insurance company and the Union Phoenix.
It was built on the land released during the construction of the Gran Via, to crumble popularly known as the "Coffin House", named after the narrowness of the site where it was located between the streets of Alcala and Caballero de Gracia.
On the austere ground floor, upper floors are decorated with columns that serve as a pedestal for allegorical statues of Commerce, Agriculture, Industry and Mining.
The circular tower is crowned by a dome of gold inlaid with slate. Originally, it bore the symbol of the company (a bronze statue of the Phoenix on which there was a human figure with upraised arm representing Ganymede).
In the early seventies, the company sold the building to its current owners, the insurer "Metropolis." The new owners decided to take the statue (then familiar feature of the landscape Madrid) to the building in the Paseo de la Castellana. Finally, the statue was replaced by another that represents laVictoria Winged, the original Phoenix is now in the garden of the modern building and the Phoenix Union Spanish.
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