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Monday, June 30, 2025
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Palacio Real
Calle de Bailén
Madrid
Communidad de Madrid
Spain
91 542 00 59
Type: Historical Interest
Addmission Fee: 6 Euro or 3 Euro for students
Hours: open summers Mon.-Sat., 9 am-6 pm, Sun., 9 am-3 pm; winters Mon.-Sat., 9:30 am-5 pm, Sun., 9 am-2 pm
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Madrid
Communidad de Madrid
Spain
91 542 00 59
Type: Historical Interest
Addmission Fee: 6 Euro or 3 Euro for students
Hours: open summers Mon.-Sat., 9 am-6 pm, Sun., 9 am-3 pm; winters Mon.-Sat., 9:30 am-5 pm, Sun., 9 am-2 pm
Comments ( 0 )
Rating (0 Votes)
Follow the Calle Santiago to the splendid Plaza de Oriente fronting the Palacio del Oriente, otherwise known as the Palacio Real. The Plaza itself is the product of Napoleon’s demolition-happy brother Joseph, who ordered the area cleared of some 50 houses, convents, and at least one church and library.
His efforts, during the short time his reign interrupted the Bourbons, earned him the moniker, El Rey de las Plazuelas (King of the Small Plazas). Construction of the Palacio Real in all its Neoclassical immensity, was begun in 1737 under Felipe V of the Bourbon dynasty, three years after the Moorish alcázar (fortress)that previously occupied the space was destroyed by fire on Christmas night.
An Italian architect was commissioned for the task of creating this, the grandest European palace. The granite and limestone was painstakingly hauled in from the Sierra de Guadarrama Mountains, and when the project was finally completed under a succeeding Italian (Felipe V did not live to see his vision come to life), it amounted to over 2,000 rooms, the bulk of which remain unfinished to this day. Where it is accessible, the Palace is lavishly decorated with tapestries, porcelains, chandeliers
and paintings; its rooms correspond to various themes such as the throne room, the rooms of the Real Oficina de Farmacia, with their endless array of tonics and royal medicines, and the Real Armería, displaying a vast collection of armor and weapons from the 16th and 17th centuries, including the swords of notable conquistadores. The Palace served as the royal residence until 1931, when Alfonso XIII abdicated the throne (his room remains as he left it). Today it only sees King Juan Carlos (who prefers to live outside the city at the Zarzuela Palace) during royal ceremonies.
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