To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the creation of the Ministry of Public Works (*Ministerio de Fomento*), a souvenir sheetcontaining five stamps and a non-postal vignette was issued on December 11, 2001, highlighting the Ministry’s infrastructure program. To mark the 175th anniversary of the same department now known as the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobilitythe building that houses its headquarters serves as the image for the commemorative stamp.
The Ministry of Public Works was established on October 20, 1851, during the reign of Isabella II. On that date, the President of the Council of Ministers, Juan Bravo Murillo, signed the Royal Decree creating the new ministry. It assumed the responsibilities previously held by the Ministry of Commerce, Education, and Public Works, with the addition of tasks such as the construction of telegraph towers, local roads, and all matters related to the development of public infrastructure. The Ministry also took charge of specialized schools for the training of engineers covering civil engineering (roads, canals, and ports), mining, and architecture as well as schools of commerce and industrial academies.
Today, under its current name, the Ministry’s remit encompasses roads, railways, the merchant navy, civil aviation, and the National Geographic Institute. It is also responsible for the regulation of the postal sector as a whole, including the universal postal service.
As for the Ministry’s headquarters, the building depicted on the stamp is reminiscent of El Escorial a structure also conceived in its time as a grand center for public administration. In 1932, Indalecio Prieto, the Minister of Public Works, commissioned the Bilbao-born architect Secundino Zuazo to design the project on the site of the former racecourse. This development marked the beginning of a new urban axis, extending the *Castellana* (a major thoroughfare) toward the north. Both Zuazo himself and the Nuevos Ministerios complex have previously been featured in our philatelic issues. The stamp dedicated to him in 1975 bears an image of the complex, as does the stamp issued in 2020 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Ministry of Labour.
Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility
