Inside a prime estate in El Viso, a prestigious neighborhood in Madrid that boasts the highest ... [+]
Madrid, the capital of Spain, is a tour de force teeming with art masterpieces, grand monuments, elegant gardens, elite neighborhoods and notable citizens such as writer Miguel de Cervantes of five centuries’ past and today’s genre-defying film director Pedro Almodóvar.
Its neighborhoods include exclusive Recoletos, Retiro, Jerónimos and Salamanca, which are graced with designer boutiques and grand 19th-century boulevards.
The metropolis also harbors a lesser-known haven called Colonia de El Viso, which offers the tranquility and privacy sought by the discreetly wealthy. The residential pocket in the Chamartín district is about three miles north of the Museo Nacional del Prado and its masterpieces by El Greco, Velázquez and Goya.
The El Viso neighborhood (upper left) in Madrid sits to south of the impressive Santiago Bernabéu ... [+]
El Viso, designed in the 1930s by architect Rafael Bergamín, was envisioned as a garden city clustered with hotelitos, small houses with gardens at the northern end of Calle de Serrano.
The neighborhood’s storied past includes Residencia de Estudiantes, Spain’s first cultural center that has hosted scientific and artistic exchanges between some of the most brilliant minds in Europe. Salon regulars included Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Igor Stravinsky and Le Corbusier.
Today, El Viso’s leafy lanes host the most expensive real estate in Madrid. The neighborhood, populated with estates, has the highest per capita income in Spain, according to the country’s National Institute of Statistics.
A short list of families (and their fortunes) that now call El Viso home include a son of Spain’s former prime minister José María Aznar; Rafael Del Pino, chairman of infrastructure firm Ferrovial; Ana Patricia Botín, executive chairman of Banco Santander; Juan-Miguel Villar Mir, former chairman and CEO of construction company Obrascón Huarte Lain; Florentino Pérez, president of Real Madrid; and renowned architect Rafael Moneo.
The modernist light-infused entrance hall features a pair of 18th-century Empire console tables. ... [+]
After 16 years, the Serratosa family, one of Spain’s dominant business dynasties, is exiting El Viso. Javier Serratosa, son of Emilio Serratosa, who founded Valencia, Spain-based regional airline Air Nostrum, and his wife Nikola are selling their 1,286-square-meter (13,842 square feet) four-story home on a double lot.
The sale of the home, one of the largest residences in El Viso, is rare in a neighborhood where owners usually stay put, often bequeathing their property to succeeding generations. José Ribes Bas, co-owner of Valencia-based Rimontgó, has listed the residence, with the price available upon request.
The home, built in 2008, was designed by renowned architect Andrés Rebuelta, known for his grand country houses and estates. The stylish rectangle, with added-on shapes and overhangs, is topped with a Spanish tile roof. The home’s facade features an array of generous windows set in smooth stucco facing.
The single-family home in El Viso was designed by noted architect Andrés Rebulta. Design features of ... [+]
The interiors were orchestrated by Nikola Serratosa. Standout features include a car elevator that descends to a massive 345-square-meter (3,713 square feet) basement and entertainment space, heated and cooled floors throughout, three fireplaces, state-of-the-art energy systems and a circular pool.
Fernando Caruncho, one of the world’s acclaimed landscape designers, created the gardens that wreathe the property. Fine-art publisher Rizzoli New York recently published a survey of his work: “Reflections of Paradise: The Gardens of Fernando Caruncho.”
“We want to downsize because we will soon have four rooms empty,” Serratosa says, referring to his three sons who have moved out and a daughter who will soon leave home.
The home’s oak plank floors by German firm Schotten & Hansen are trimmed with Campaspero limestone. ... [+]
The residence’s front doors open to a modernist light-infused entrance hall that features a pair of 18th-century Empire console tables. Backed by large mirrors, the tables are set with glass and aluminum spheres that reflect and amplify the play of light in the south-facing home. Sleek aluminum chairs flank the tables.
The home’s oak plank floors by German firm Schotten & Hansen are trimmed with Campaspero limestone. Pocket doors and automatic blinds are found throughout the home. Many ceilings are nearly 10 feet high.
A standout floating stone staircase is set against the home’s north wall, enhancing the antique-modern interplay. It ascends to the fourth floor, backed by an enormous window.
The weighty stone, framed by the window’s northern light, appears to defy gravity and is a head-turner. “Everyone who visits loves the staircase,” says Serratosa. “It’s elegant, a really clean look, and it’s not easy to do.”
The four-story house features large windows and balconies, flooding the interior with natural light ... [+]
The first or ground floor has a two-bedroom guest suite with a bathroom and a one-bedroom one-bathroom service area with a laundry.
The kitchen and dining rooms are on the second floor, along with the living and family rooms. The latter, lined with bookshelves displaying framed family photos, is Serratosa’s favorite. The living and family rooms are anchored by elegant carved marble fireplaces. “They’re from a late 18th-century French house,” says Serratosa, whose family once owned Valenciana de Cementos, which for decades dominated Spain’s cement industry.
An aluminum island with a cooktop bisects the kitchen, which features appliances by German firm Gaggenau.
The kitchen, equipped with an aluminum island and Gaggenau appliances, lies on the second floor.
The third floor hosts the couple’s two-bathroom primary suite with a living room warmed by a modern fireplace. Generous dressing and office spaces flank either side of the bedroom.
The top floor’s ceilings, punched with nine skylights, angle over four en suite bedrooms, each with a dressing area. Three of the rooms adjoin a living room.
The vast basement has space for nine autos serviced by the car elevator just off the home’s driveway. The basement also has a 300-bottle wine cellar, gym, laundry and storage areas. Ceramic tile floors and ceilings faced with aluminum open-cell grids make for a smart high-tech look.
An elevator descends to the home's basement and entertainment space.
Serratosa describes the basement entertainment space as a “chill-out place.” From the outside, “you can’t hear anything,” which has worked out well, he notes, because his children hosted DJ parties there. Rebuelta soundproofed the space and thoroughly insulated the home’s envelope and all interior walls.
“My wife and I have done three houses from zero before this,” says Serratosa. “We made mistakes in all of them. But this one, we gathered many ideas and we finally learned from those mistakes. This house is perfect—no heating issues, no noise, no moisture.” A pipe and gravel system draws humidity away from the structure.
Gas lines were removed from the home in late 2022 in favor of an aerothermal system that extracts energy from outside air to heat and cool the home. The roof’s 36 solar panels augment the property’s energy-efficient profile. In Spain, all homes for sale or rent are required to have an energy performance certificate. The Serratosa home has an A rating, the most efficient.
The grounds were designed by landscape architect Fernando Caruncho, who transformed the property ... [+]
The Caruncho-designed gardens have an easy-living look, with black bamboo, jasmine, climbing ivy, hedges, Japanese maple and linden trees. A heated swimming pool and lounge areas are in the northeast corner of the property. The outdoor spaces, which include a pond with fountains, can accommodate up to 200 guests.
The Serratosas bought the property in 2004 from elderly sisters who lived in two ramshackle mid-century homes on the double lot. After a two-year permitting process, the homes were razed and construction began.
The Serratosas moved from Valencia to Madrid in 2002 when the family acquired Uralita (now COEMAC), one of Spain’s largest construction materials companies. They first lived in La Moraleja, about 30 miles north of Madrid, but the traffic into the city was “crazy,” Serratosa says. “It’s better to live inside the city.”
The basement, lined with ceramic tile floors and aluminum ceilings, is soundproof and can be used ... [+]
“In El Viso you can park right on the street, and there are good schools and hospitals nearby––it’s very safe, especially for young people,” he adds. “And it’s very convenient. You can take public transportation anywhere.”
What will the Serratosas miss most? Javier Serratosa mentions the home’s cozy fireplaces and the laid-back family barbecues in the gardens. The couple say they will likely move to an apartment that will offer greater ease and convenience because they travel extensively.
