The liberal «ateneo» (cultural club) is the first and bets known institution of the many contained under that umbrella in modern Spanish culture. From the creation of the pioneering Ateneo de Madrid in 1835 an extensive provincial network of organisations of the same type bound together the cream of the political and cultural elite, aspiring to encompass (in an ambitious project of free thought) the exercise of academic education, the cultivation and discussion of scientific developments, and the diffusion of literary and artistic creativity. Liberal institutions of this type survived the long years of the Franco dictatorship, albeit with great difficulty, into the present time, although —it is true— without the leading cultural role they once enjoyed.