[HIGHLIGHTS] The ruin of the Calatrava Obelisk donated to Madrid: it functioned for only three months and the City Council does not assume its expensive maintenance

The Golden Obelisk in Plaza Castilla, the work of the Valencian architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava, will continue to stand still and not rotate. This 92-meter-high monument, a poisoned gift to the capital of the defunct Caja Madrid, only functioned for three months.

The equipment was very complex: electronic mechanisms, specific software, 121 hydraulic elements and almost 900 joints. In 2012, as part of a series of cost containment measures, the Madrid City Council decided not to go ahead with the tender for the maintenance of the movement of the obelisk.