The Gran Vía de Montero Ríos is an avenue in Pontevedra (Spain) located in the city centre, in the 19th century bourgeois area.

[1] Also in the 1880s, the Pontevedra City Council bought the property located further west of the Gran Vía from the Munaiz family, a plot of land that was still empty, in order to construct a building for the new School of Arts and Crafts.

[2] The building, designed by the architects Joaquín Rojí López-Calvo and José Lorite Kramer, was completed at the beginning of 1926, with more delay than expected due to the economic crisis.

[3][4] In August 1941, the Pontevedra City Council ceded a plot of land at the end of the Gran Vía to the Francoist government for the construction of a monument to the memory of the soldiers who died for their country.

[5] In July 1984, the plans for the construction of the city's first underground car park under the Gran Vía de Montero Ríos, with a capacity for 376 vehicles,[6] were completed.

On 12 August 1986, the Monument to the Soldier was inaugurated at the end of the Gran Vía de Montero Ríos, at the initiative of the mayor José Rivas Fontán.

[11] In 2001, work was carried out on the underground car park and the Gran Vía de Montero Ríos was completely refurbished with a new surface.

[12] At the end of the Gran Vía de Montero Ríos, on the west side, is the Monument to the Soldier, the work of the sculptor Alfonso Vilar Lamelas.

The Pontevedra Provincial Council Palace, located in the middle of the Gran Vía de Montero Ríos, belongs to the eclectic style with elements and concepts inspired by French architecture.

The façade has the traditional two-tone scheme of fine reddish and pinkish brick and granite, with decorative stone details around the windows and pilasters.

The central body of the façade of the main entrance is decorated in the Art Nouveau style: a large window with a curved lintel and a geometric Secessionist rhythm.