HISTORICAL

Five figures of Mingote, offer daily a parade of the Madrilenian pose of passed centuries, from the balcony of the central seat of Groupama in the Cortes square at 12 in the morning.

In number 8 of the Cortes square, in front of the Palace Hotel, in the old building Plus Ultra, a splendid clock indicates, from 1993, the hours with beautiful sound and a small spectacle: five figures of Mingote leave every day to the balcony of the clock at 12 in the morning and at eight in the evening. In Christmas they do it hourly from seven to the nine in the evening, and the twenty-fourth and the thirty-first of December, it also occurs at midnight.

Five figures designed by Antonio Mingote, make their appearance from the interior of the balcony, where the clock is, crossed by the bells that mark the hours. The images represent Carlos III, the Duchess of Alba, with their inseparable caniche-poodle, brilliant Goya painter, the smiling Maja and the bullfigther Pedro Romero.

During these brilliant minutes, they advance from the bottom of the balcony in a tight group, are greeted turning his bodies one to another, moving their hands to distribute themselves slowly on the balustrade of the balcony, watch to the public, usually very little and grouping themselves, retire, by the same way through which they began their walking.

Of all the mentioned ones, perhaps the most unknown is Pedro Romero (Ronda, 1754 -1839), immortalized by Goya, who inaugurated in 1785 the enormous bullring of Ronda, along with Pepe-Hillo; he killed more than 5,600 bulls during his long professional life and at the age of 76 he was put to the front of the School of Tauromaquia of Seville; and he was allowed to bullfight in order to save the bad situations of his young students during the classes that he gave.

The building that lodges so singular device was constructed by Joaquín Rojí López-Calvo on the beginings of the last century -concretely, in 1910- like a building for houses. His promoter was Marquess de Amboage -junior-, who also ordered to this same architect to build a wonderful set, with the same aim and in the same date, in the Canalejas square, in which groundflour it is today located the famous confectioner's shop La Violeta.