On October 2, 2026, Madrid's Mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, inaugurated the Benjamín Palencia Municipal Library, located in the Ensanche de Vallecas neighborhood of the Villa de Vallecas district. The ceremony was attended by Marta Rivera de la Cruz, the city’s delegate for Culture, Tourism, and Sports, and Carlos González Pereira, the district councilor.
The new facility, part of the Benjamín Palencia Cultural Center, covers an area of 750 square meters and houses a collection of 24,500 items, including both bibliographic and multimedia resources. The city invested €541,000 in the library, which employs ten staff members working in shifts throughout the day.
A Space for Reading and Learning
The Benjamín Palencia Library offers a variety of services, including book and multimedia loans, self-checkout, public internet access, and Wi-Fi. It features dedicated study and reading areas, a children's room, and a bebeteca (a space for babies and toddlers). The library also provides a multipurpose room and reading promotion activities.
Of the library's bibliographic collection, 71% is aimed at adults, 25% at children, and 4% at young adults. In terms of multimedia resources, 88.4% is for adults and 11.6% for children. Additionally, the library offers access to eight physical newspaper titles, two digital titles, and 55 magazine titles.
Accessibility measures include wheelchair access, NVDA screen readers at internet stations, and hearing loops at information desks. The library's programming will feature storytelling sessions, reading clubs, creative writing workshops, English conversation groups for children, and thematic discussions on philosophy, psychology, and cinema.
A Tribute to Benjamín Palencia
The library is named after Benjamín Palencia (1894-1980), a painter and illustrator who co-founded the Vallecas School. Palencia had a strong connection to the area and the nearby Cerro Almodóvar, where he developed part of his artistic project alongside sculptor Alberto Sánchez.
With the addition of the Benjamín Palencia Library, Madrid's network of public libraries now includes 35 centers across various districts. This network offers over 47,000 square meters of usable space, 5,281 reading stations, and 559 public internet access points, with free Wi-Fi available in all libraries.
Growing Library Usage
The opening of the new library coincides with a period of increased usage of the municipal library network. In the first half of 2026, public libraries in Madrid recorded 1,338,159 visits, a 4.09% increase compared to the same period in 2025, and logged 832,916 loans. The number of library cardholders reached 595,260, up 1.3%, while active internet users rose to 110,128, a 3.17% increase.
Moreover, during the second quarter of the year, libraries organized 3.42% more activities, with attendance increasing by 4.26% compared to the previous year. Over the past few years, library usage has seen significant growth, with visits increasing by approximately 40%, loans by around 26%, and attendance at activities by more than 56% from 2022 to 2025. Following the opening of the Benjamín Palencia Library, Madrid is set to expand its public library offerings further with the upcoming inauguration of the Victoria Prego Municipal Library in Carabanchel.
