Lines with art: L3, a stroll through starry skies, key works of literature and striking mosaics
Have you ever noticed the stained glass window at Plaza de España station or the stars that decorate the ceiling of the lobby of Sol station? These are some of the artistic gems of the most emblematic stations on line 3, which also holds surprises in other lesser-known stations, such as Hospital 12 de Octubre and Villaverde Alto.
Argüelles
We start the tour at Argüelles station, which welcomes us with a cheerful mosaic of colours created by J. Ruiz in 1995. It is a representation of Parque del Oeste and the surrounding buildings, over which the cable car, one of the distinctive elements of this neighbourhood, 'flies'.
Plaza de España
Decorated with 189 metres of plastic strips featuring the complete text of Miguel de Cervantes' masterpiece: The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha. In addition, and although it perhaps goes more unnoticed by Metro users, it also has an interesting stained glass window made by Ramón Molina in 1981, which depicts the coat of arms of Madrid, with the bear and the strawberry tree against a background of leaves. Have you ever noticed it?
Sol
One of the most representative stations of the underground network invites us to look up. On the one hand, on the ceiling of the Calle Mayor hall there is a sculpture celebrating Miguel Otamendi, Antonio González Echarte and Carlos Mendoza, the three founding engineers of Metro. On the other, in the hall that connects with Cercanías, there is a spectacular series of stars symbolising the Community of Madrid.
Hospital 12 de octubre
Further away from the city centre, you can find Hospital 12 de Octubre station, which has a mural by Carlos Alonso and Luis Sardá. It includes 12 human figures, half male and half female. It is entitled Humani Corpori and depicts a human body observed from different perspectives, in order to provoke the same sensation as when looking at a sculpture.
Villaverde alto
Under the title Villaverde is its people, Natalia Sánchez Panadero decorated Villaverde Alto station with a photomosaic made with passport-size photographs of local residents, representing a panoramic view of the neighbourhood. The image was taken from the air and required 67,000 portraits of 4.5 cm to reproduce. It couldn't be more original!
Did you like it? If you want to know more, take a look at our cultural guide, where you can discover some of the most interesting art in the Metro de Madrid.
Or maybe you’d prefer to listen? We tell you all about it in our 'Arte en Metro’ podcast, which is available on YouTube, Spotify and Ivoox.
And if we have sparked your curiosity and you want to know more about Metro, we encourage you to take a look at our podcasts section. You have them all here!
