Mercado de San Antón, Madrid

Mercado de San Antón is a food market in Madrid’s Chueca neighbourhood, now housed in a building designed for both shopping and eating. The original market building opened in 1945 under architect Carlos de la Torre y Costa; it was demolished in 2007, and a replacement opened five years later with market and restaurant services. Its earlier life reaches back to an open-air nineteenth-century bazaar made from wooden stalls.

During the Civil War, it continued operating while Madrid was defended. The current building spreads across three main floors: fresh produce stalls occupy the first, tasting stalls and a flexible cultural area the second, and a restaurant with a large terrace the third. That terrace gives views over Chueca. QVE arquitectos designed the renewed building.