Did Spain use an ice rink as a morgue? I remember many articles about ice rinks being used as mortuaries, as COVID deaths were increasing. One of the more notable stories can be found here: Spain transforms ice rink into makeshift mortuary to cope with coronavirus deaths However, according to Knoema, overall deaths in Spain in 2020 were not significantly more than expected. I also can't find pictures of ice rinks with actual bodies. I only ever read these articles when the ice rinks were prepared to be used, but not when they were actually used. Did Spain really use an ice rink as mortuary, or was it only preparing to use it, but never actually needed to use it because the number of deaths wasn't as big as expected? When people tell me that COVID is not a big deal, I point to stories like that. However it seems that these stories don't make much sense under closer scrutiny.

The ice rink is called Palacio de Hielo (“Palace of Ice”) and it is located in Madrid. Spanish language newspaper El Mundo has multiple articles from April 2020 (article 1, article 2) which include photos of the inside with caskets lined up:

![H section of caskets in ice rink](

This rink was only a little to the west of IFEMA Hospital, a provisional hospital which ran from March 22, 2020 to May 1, 2020. According to Alamy, the makeshift morgue opened on March 24, 2020.

Alamy has another photo of the rink from higher up, which seems to have been taken after they stopped housing caskets there (though what is almost certainly turf is still covering the ice). Alamy's other photos of Palacio de Hielo show some other facets of the operation in various stages, such as the workers in protective gear, emergency vehicles/army trucks/hearses waiting outside, and more.