Atocha Station Memorial
The Atocha station memorial is a memorial monument located at Atocha station in Madrid, Spain, that commemorates the 191 victims of the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings.
This is a monumental tribute to the victims of the terrorist attacks on March 11th, 2004. It consists out of 2 parts, intimately related: the glass cupola and the room underneath it. From this room, visitors can watch the inside of the cupola, where messages are visible, printed on the glass. These messages were written in the successive days after the bombing. The 11 m high glass cupola is formed by 2 different layers: transparent colourless glass blocks and an ETFE membrane. The blocks are glued together with acrylic glue that hardens when exposed to ultraviolet light. The glue is still transparent, but the ETFE foil contains a 97% transparency, subject to change, according to the pressure within the room. The messages will be seen through the glass skin during the day, and appear different during the night. The room is accessed directly from the main lobby of the station of Atocha. The blue coloured space is like “an empty space, in silence, with the light as a protagonist”.
