Afix Fast supports monumental Cortylandia Christmas setup in Madrid
MADRID - El Corte Inglés opens Madrid’s festive season with Cortylandia 2025 – The City of Time, an impressive façade installation built around a giant Swiss-style cuckoo clock that relies on AFIX FAST system scaffolding, supplied by SOLMA Hispánica.
WHAT IS CORTYLANDIA ?
Since 1979, Cortylandia has been an essential Christmas tradition in Madrid. Each year, the façade of the El Corte Inglés department store turns into a musical fairy-tale of light, colour and movement. It attracts thousands of families and has become a cultural icon of Spain’s holiday season, combining song, animation and large-scale décor that brings generations together.
THEME 2025 - THE CITY OF TIME"
The 2025 edition, “La ciudad del tiempo” (The City of Time), features an impressive Swiss cuckoo-clock scene surrounded by musicians, dancers and forest animals dressed in Alpine costumes, moving to an original festive melody. A lively cuckoo narrator guides the audience with rhythm and humour.
As every year, Cortylandia blends craftsmanship, technology and imagination in a show reminiscent of an animated film – only this time, fully mechanical and performed outdoors.
The production begins as early as February, with sketches, 3D-models and scale prototypes. By August, construction starts on the mechanical figures – some reaching 14 m high and 40 m wide – built on steel frameworks, covered with hand-painted polystyrene, and animated through electric and pneumatic systems. Even the music is original, a family tradition composed by the Nieto family since the 1980s.
SOLMA HISPANICA & AFIX FAST SCAFFOLDING FOR EVENTS
For Cortylandia 2025, the entire support structure was built with the AFIX FAST system scaffolding, supplied by AFIX distributor SOLMA Hispanica in Spain. Its modular and multidirectional design allowed perfect adaptation to the façade’s complex geometry and multiple height levels.
The structure combines stability, flexibility and safety, forming a reliable foundation for creative realisations.
AFIX Group is proud to contribute, through its Spanish partner, to one of Madrid’s most beloved Christmas traditions – where technology, creativity and craftsmanship meet in the magic of Navidad in Madrid. 🎅
VISITOR INFORMATION CORTYLANDIA 2025
📍 Location: El Corte Inglés, Calle Maestro Victoria (Madrid)
🎟️ Admission: Free entry
🕒 Duration: ≈ 15 minutes
📅 Dates: 29 November – 4 January
🌞 Morning shows: 12:00 · 13:00 · 14:00
🌙 Evening shows: 17:00 · 18:00 · 19:00 · 20:00 · 21:00
(Reduced schedule on 24 & 31 Dec and 5 Jan)
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