Date

Circa 1910

A royal site in Madrid, under the administration of the Patrimonio Nacional. It is located in Basilica of Nuestra Señora de Atocha. The pantheon houses the tombs of a number of famous Spaniards. The original name refers to a lost icon from a chapel which was found among some high grasses, (called Tocha) during the time of the Reconquista. Located within a former Dominican convent. The church was transformed into a Basilica in 1863 by Pope Pius IX. The old church was in disrepair and rebuilt in the 1890's in an eclectic Neo-Byzantine style designed by Fernando Arbós y Tremanti. Of the elaborate plan proposed by Arbós y Tremanti, only the campanile and Pantheon of Illustrious Men (Spanish: Panteón de Hombres Ilustres) was completed (and survive). The church was destroyed during the Spanish Civil War and reconstruction (in a simplified Neo-Baroque) completed in 1951.