Lines with art: L11, from Raventós to a tribute to the residents of Carabanchel

In the 1980s, Raventós signed the only mural in Plaza Elíptica that decorated the facilities of the shortest line of the Madrid Metro network from the opening of L11 in 1998 until 2006. That year, with the entry into service of the extension from Pan Bendito to La Peseta, which would later continue to La Fortuna, it was the residents of Carabanchel Alto who decided to provide the station that bears the name of their neighbourhood with the second ornamental element on the line. Here’s the whole story:

January 07 2025

Carabanchel Alto

The initiative to include an ornamental element in this station came from the residents' association with the goal of paying tribute "to all the neighbours who made a better neighbourhood possible", as the inscription on the mural that finally materialised the idea reads. It is the work of Moisés Ruano and consists of a steel relief that symbolises, as a metaphor, the work of the inhabitants of Carabanchel, whose hands are represented by beams joined by flanges that also recall the shapes of the houses in the neighbourhood. Next to them, five trees remind us of the well-being of green spaces in urban neighbourhoods.

Mural

Plaza Elíptica

Until the Carabanchel Alto mural was presented, the only work of art on L11, which only had 3 stations at the beginning, was the one that had already existed since the 1980s in the Marcelo Usera vestibule of Plaza Elíptica.

It is an abstract mural by Raventós, who has signed many works for the Madrid Metro network, and is made of glazed ceramic.

Mural