The clock in the centre of the Banco de España’s trading floor is a monumental piece in the Art Deco style from around 1934. It features a hollow marble column carved with grooved and glazed gaps to light it from inside which supports a four-sided clock. The hours are gilded bronze Arabic numerals. The hands are made out of bluing metal.

After the mansion of the Count of Santamarca was purchased in 1923 to extended the premises of the Banco de España, architect José Yarnoz Larrosa submitted his plans for the extension in 1927. They were approved by the Bank’s General Board. Yarnoz designed a large lobby or trading floor, a huge area with classical features clearly in an Art Deco style.

On 2 May 1934, Yarnoz sent a letter to the Governor of the Bank recommending that a monumental piece with multiple functions be installed on the trading floor. It would contain several clocks that could be easily seen from as many places as possible. Furthermore, the piece would light the hall indirectly and house the stale air extraction systems. Desks would also be placed around it. The General Board accepted the proposal on 18 May. Its cost was estimated at 134,174 pesetas [1].

This quadrangular monumental piece, with a typical Art Deco design, is made of a simple iron and brick framework covered with marble. It is hollow. Its floor cross-section is 1.40 x 1.40 metres and it stands approximately 6.50 metres high. There is a clock face on each side of the upper part. People can thus see the time from the ground floor offices, from the trading floor open to the public and from the upper galleries overlooking the lobby. The heating and stale air extraction pipes are inside the hollow casing. The outlets are fitted with artistic bronze gratings fitted on the marble. The light reflectors are fitted in the upper part. They light the upper part of the lobby indirectly, and in particular the arched moulded frame supporting the stained-glass window.

[1] The four-faced clock cost 5000 pesetas. Banco de España archive. Madrid Administration and Works Historical Archive – Movable and Immovable Property, box 70C.

Amelia Aranda Huete