ABSTRACT
The church and the school of Pias de San Fernando is situated in Lavapies, a historical quarter of the city of Madrid just south of the central Puerta del Sol. The site of the former school houses a university faculty that consists of a building with classrooms and auditoria, and a library is built within the ruins of the church. The ruin of the church is preserved in its rough but delicate condition as a witness of its violent history; brickwork seems restored only to a minimum, window frames are invisible from the exterior, and the church remained roofless. The space is covered by wooden lattice under a glass roof and forms a subtle visual reference to the original vaulted ceiling of the church. The classroom and auditoria building is a new construction that follows the contours of the former school and leans against the exterior facade of the ruins of the church.
