The Scientific, Literary and Artistic Athenaeum of Madrid was founded in 1835 as a private cultural institution in the old Abrantes house, located on Calle del Prado on the corner of Calle de San Agustín. This cultural institution visited different locations until it reached the current one at Calle del Prado, 21. In 1882, the architects Enrique Fort and Luis de Landecho were commissioned with the project to build the new modernist building, which would be inaugurated by Antonio Cánovas del Castillo in 1884. It is a building between party walls with an irregular floor plan formed of two bodies: one closest to the street, which is elongated in shape and designed as an intermediate transit area between the façade and the interior; and the second body, which houses the different premises with a layout that copies the format of other cultural buildings of the time: a chair, a library, reading and conversation rooms, galleries and an assembly hall. The architect Arturo Mélida was charged with designing the interior décor and the assembly hall.