Metal Phthalocyanines (MPc) are robust planar organic molecules with interesting electronic, magnetic, and transport properties. MPc's have been suggested as building blocks for nanodevices, spintronics or surface catalysis. We have performed an extensive experimental and theoretical study of several FePc films on Au(111) and Ag(110). The study includes a series of x-ray spectroscopy experiments (XAS, XMCD, XLPA) at the Fe K and L2,3 as well as N-K absorption edges, which is complemented with magnetization measurements and STM investigation of the films. In the solid phase, FePc molecules form linear chains by columnar stacking. We have refined the structure of the film, showing a particular columnar stacking, different to that of the bulk phases [1]. Fe L2,3 XMCD on the FePc textured thin films shows that the Fe2+ ions present an unusually large, highly unquenched mL ≈ 0.5 μB orbital component, with planar anisotropy. The mL/mS = 0.83 ratio is the largest measured in 3d complexes and compounds. The origin of this unusually high orbital moment is the incompletely filled eg level lying close to the Fermi energy. This explains the unusually large and positive hyperfine field detected by Mössbauer spectroscopy in FePc. The FePc film strong planar anisotropy inferred from XMCD experiments is fully confirmed by magnetization measurements [2]. The observation of a quadrupolar signal in x-ray magnetic circular dichroism at the Fe K-edge has been crucial to the determination of the FePc electronic ground state. Indeed, all ground states previously suggested for FePc are incompatible with the experimental data [3]. Finally, some consequences of the evolution of the active site in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyzed by iron phthalocyanine (FePc) submonolayers deposited on the Ag(110) surface will be shown. The capacity of reversibly and sharply switching the magnetic state of FePc molecules by chemical means has been conclusively evidenced by XMCD at the Fe L2,3 absorption edges. FePc on Ag(110) acts as a reversible bifunctional chemical−magnetic switch at the atomic monolayer scale [4].