Madrid's Palacio de Linares reopens as the seat of Casa de América in 1992

In 1992 the Palacio de Linares, a grand 19th-century mansion on Madrid's Plaza de Cibeles, opened to the public as the headquarters of Casa de América, a cultural institution devoted to ties between Spain and Latin America.

The palace had been built for the Marquis of Linares, José de Murga, and his family, and was completed in the late 1800s. In later decades it passed out of private hands and fell into neglect, until public bodies took it over and funded a thorough restoration of its rooms and decoration. The renovated building then gave Casa de América a prestigious home for exhibitions, concerts, conferences and literary events.

The change mattered in two ways. It saved one of the city's notable aristocratic residences and gave it a public cultural role. It also kept alive the palace's popular reputation: long before the reopening, the building was the subject of a well-known local ghost legend about the Murga family, and that story continued to attract curiosity, books and media attention. The legend is the thread that later productions, including the new HBO Max documentary, have followed.