Plaza Castilla

Plaza de Castilla, is the highest point of Paseo de la Castellana, the city's main avenue. In the area are some of the most important buildings of the city.

Calvo Sotelo's statue is a monument erected in 1962 in memory of the politician and minister, José Calvo Sotelo, illegally detained at his home and murdered on July 13th, 1936, by socialist militants. This murder was one of the keys that caused general Franco to go to war, until then he was very reluctant to decide to star in the uprising against the government of the Republic trying to establish the order they believed to be broken, but such fatal a murder shot it all.

The obelisk of Calatrava. Viewed from the south of the plaza, it is nestled between two Kio towers. It has a height of 92 m, and a steel tube structure composed of twelve rings that revolve around it, produce an effect of wave motion.

Kio towers, the work of American architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee, responds to the idea of breaking with vertical design. Johnson says "we must break with the right angle if you do not want to die of boredom. " The towers were an architectural challenge, since they were the first leaning towers of the world, with a 14 ° tilt with respect to the vertical. Although its real name is "Puerta de Europa", it is known as the Kio towers, because of the Kuwaiti origin of the company that promoted its construction.

The four towers, built on the former grounds of the sports city of Real Madrid,were built giving Madrid a new Skyline profile. The four towers that have been raised are:

Torre Caja Madrid (250m high) built by Sir Norman Foster, is the tallest building in Spain. The building is organize in ways similar to a shelf.

Crystal Tower (249m high), built by Cesar Pelli the architect who is also responsible for the Petronas towers.

Sacyr-Vallehermoso Tower (236m high), built by Carlos Rubio Carvajal, who designed this building with an equilateral triangle base, whose special provision provides minimum resistance to wind and it is the only tower with a double-skin facade that is completely covered in glass Scale mode.

Espacio Tower (224m high). Its windows are placed opposite each other, those on the left to the right and backward, give the building a unique balance and aerodynamics.