Lámparas Sixto

Lámparas Sixto is a family-run lamp restoration workshop and retailer based in Madrid, Spain, operating since 1945. The business was founded by Ángel Sixto, an electrician who knew the theatres of 1940s Madrid from the inside and who set up a small workshop on an intermediate floor of a building on Calle Cartagena. There he began restoring lamps — work, as the company's own account puts it, that no one had fully taught him. Word spread among Madrid's antique dealers, who began sending him clients: private individuals wanting to recover a grandmother's lamp and, over time, well-known personalities of the era. The workshop remained a discreet atelier known only to those who sought it out until Ángel's son, José Luis Sixto, persuaded his father to move to street level. When the droguería (household goods shop) on the ground floor closed, the opportunity arose, and in 1978 the Calle Cartagena shop opened its doors for the first time, turning the workshop into a shop window that Madrid began to discover. A third generation, Beatriz Sixto, grew up inside the business, exploring the pendants her father brought home as a child. After finishing her studies she returned in 2004 — by choice, the company says, because there was something there she could not let be lost — and today runs the workshop. The firm describes itself as three generations of master lamp-makers (maestros lampareros) offering artisanal restoration and the sale of lamps and crystal chandeliers (arañas de cristal). Its services are aimed both at households and at historic heritage, and it states that it treats any lamp with the same care. Its public positioning rests on craft, longevity and family continuity: the official site highlights more than 60 years of history, a third family generation, 100% artisanal restoration and satisfied customers. The business is privately held by the Sixto family and operates from its historic Madrid workshop and shop. It is a small, specialist heritage-craft enterprise rather than a mass-market lighting manufacturer, and its identity is closely tied to the restoration of antique and heirloom lighting in the Spanish capital.

Lámparas Sixto traces its origins to 1945, when Ángel Sixto, an electrician in Madrid, set up a small workshop on an intermediate floor of a building on Calle Cartagena. According to the company's own account, Ángel knew most of Madrid's theatres from the inside, could read a cable in the dark and understood light better than anyone — but it was behind the scenes, among unlit crystal chandeliers and forgotten wall lights, that he found something electricity alone could not give him: the pleasure of bringing back to life what time had been breaking. In that space, between the noise of the street and the lives of the neighbours (people lived above; below had been a wine cellar and would later become a droguería), he began doing what no one had fully taught him: restoring lamps. Word soon spread among Madrid's antique dealers, who began sending him clients — private individuals wanting to recover a grandmother's lamp and, in time, personalities of the era. The company notes that the reputation of a good restorer travels on its own, but travels faster when someone who understands recommends you. Family soon followed: in a Spain that was beginning to move, people came down from the villages to the city with a suitcase and the determination of someone with nothing to lose. Germán, Ángel's brother-in-law, was one of them; he crossed the distance between countryside and asphalt and found in that workshop something like a destiny — electricity, glass, metal, patience — and stayed. José Luis Sixto, Ángel's son, grew up among crystal pendants as other children grow up among books. It was he who convinced his father to take the leap: when the droguería on the ground floor closed, he saw the opportunity to move down to street level. In 1978 the Calle Cartagena shop opened its doors for the first time. What had been a discreet workshop, known only to those who knew how to look for it, became a shop window — and Madrid began to discover them. Beatriz Sixto lived the business from the inside from the beginning, exploring with small hands the pendants her father brought home and finding the rhythm almost without noticing. In 2004, after finishing her studies, she returned — not because she had to, the company says, but because there was something there that could not be allowed to be lost. Today she runs the workshop with, in the firm's words, the same love and the same exacting standards. The business presents itself as three generations of master lamp-makers (maestros lampareros) working from the same workshop in Madrid since 1945, combining artisanal restoration with the sale of lamps and crystal chandeliers for both households and historic heritage.

• 2004

  Beatriz Sixto, third generation, returns after her studies to run the workshop.

• 1978

  The Calle Cartagena shop opens at street level after the ground-floor droguería closes, turning the workshop into a shop window.

• 1945

  Ángel Sixto sets up a small lamp-restoration workshop on Calle Cartagena, Madrid.

A third-generation, family-run Madrid atelier positioning itself on artisanal craft, heritage restoration and more than 60 years of continuity, serving both private homes and historic heritage.

• Artisanal lamp restoration

  Restoration of antique and heirloom lamps, chandeliers and wall lights.

• Crystal chandeliers (arañas de cristal)

  Sale and restoration of crystal chandeliers.

• Lamp repair and rewiring

  Electrical repair and rewiring of lamps.

1. 1Lámparas Sixto — Restauración, Reparación y Venta de Lámparas en Madridsixtolamparas.es
2. 2Nosotros — Lámparas Sixtosixtolamparas.es
3. 3Lámparas Sixto — Wikidatawikidata.org