Connecting each tip of Spain’s geography with the rest of the world, the postal services’ offices are a meeting point that many end up visiting, regardless of they are lifelong neighbours or just passing through Spain. The country’s 2,389 Post Offices offer a very extensive menu of services, which cover any type of issue related to mail and parcel delivery, including suitcases or bicycles, identification for pets, payment of bills, currency exchange, cash withdrawal, voting by mail and ticket sales. However, there is another big reason why Spain’s post offices deserve a visit: the impressive historic and emblematic buildings where many of them are located.

So much so that it would be almost possible to travel all over Spain by visiting Post Offices located in incredible locations that represent decades of history. In the early 20th century, Spanish authorities made a huge investment to modernise the state-run postal and telegraph systems, creating many of the best architectural jewels of the early 20th century in our country’s large capitals.

The most iconic example is the Post Office in Cibeles Palace (formerly known as the Communications Palace), which today shares its location with Madrid’s City Council. Located in a Modernist building designd by Antonio Palacios and Joaquín Otamendi and opened in 1919 as the headquarters of the Postal and Telegraph Company, this office boasts an unparalleled landscape in the shadow of the Cibeles and just metres from the Del Prado Museum, within the Landscape of Light, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2021.

In addition, the Post Office’s main building on Seville’s Avenida de la Consitución, opposite the Cathedral and the Archivo de Indias, is an impressive Art-Deco construction with obvious Neo-Baroque touches that was completed in 1930. Built when the capital Seville was preparing to host the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition, it was commissioned to Luis Lozano and an old acquaintance of the Post Office’s headquarters, Joaquín Otamendi. Everyone who visits this office can enjoy an impressive glazed roof that covers the two-story inner courtyard raised on semi-circular arches.

A Coruña is home to one of the most impressive examples of architecture created by and for the state-run Postal Service. Once again the result of the collaboration between Luis Lozano and Joaquín Otamendi, together with the local architect Antonio Tenreiro, this Rationalist-style work, with enormous dimensions featuring straight lines and corners behind which is hidden a great commitment to the most modern techniques, it is the first metal-structure building to be built in the Galician city and a nod to the architecture and the innovations of the Chicago School. The building was built between 1931 and 1934, and Spain’s history also left its mark on the interior: during the Civil War, it was used as a barracks and a hospital. A little earlier, in 1929, Telefónica commissioned the construction of the Neo-Gothic building that currently houses the Santiago de Compostela Post Office in a 15th-century mansion. In the same autonomous community, but in Lugo, a postman-shaped automaton that turns under a clock at 10, 12 and 8 o’clock has paid tribute to professionals for decades.

In the Balearic Islands, Post Office users can also enjoy colourful locations, such as the main office in Palma de Mallorca. This building, planned in the 1930s but finally opened in 1945, was the result of the partnership between the architect Manuel Cases Lamolla and Francisco Pou Pou. The work is reminiscent of the stately houses that are part of the island’s traditional landscape and features a curious corner structure that gives rise to a richly decorated double façade.

It is undeniable that the postal service’s offices – distributed in all the capitals of Spain – have marked and shaped the centre of some beautiful cities such as Burgos, Huesca and Santander. It is precisely there that one of the most important works of the Cantabrian regionalist style – the Post Office – is located just metres from the Santander Cathedral and the Bank of Spain building. Designed by Fernández Quintanilla and Secundino Zuazo Ugalde, it has two impressive polygonal towers and an elegant and pleasant interior awaiting to delight all users.

 

After all, no one can say that they know any city in Spain well if they have not yet visited its Post Office.