About
El Ratoncito Pérez, or "Pérez the Little Mouse," is a familiar figure to children all over the Spanish-speaking world. Like the Tooth Fairy, when a child loses a baby tooth, they can place it under their pillow, and El Ratoncito Pérez sneaks into their room to exchange it for a small gift. Little did all those children know that you can find the mouse's house hidden inside an old gas company register in central Madrid.
The creation of Pablo Herrera Valencia, the doorman of the building in which the installation is found, this tiny house for El Ratoncito Pérez is equipped with miniature furnishings for the mouse to enjoy his time off between nocturnal trips, some typically Spanish foods, and even tiny slippers and hooks to hang up his work clothes when he gets home. It also includes a thread and a sewing machine in reference to the traditional concentration of sewing, fabric, and haberdashery businesses on this street. But the furnishings aren't static—Herrera Valencia intends to update them seasonally, adding or subtracting things over the course of the year.
The house was created in November 2024 and became a sensation in Madrid after spreading on social media, with TV and print news stories following soon after.
To find the house, look for a rusty metal door in the building wall, about 1.5 meters off the ground, which says "Compañía Madrileña del Gas." You'll know you've found it by the mouse tracks leading up the wall and the small gold medallion of El Ratoncito in the middle of the door.
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Published
November 8, 2025
