Palacio Real de Madrid

》Palacio Real de Madrid (Royal Palace of Madrid)

Madrid's largest building and possibly its most beautiful is located next to the equally beautiful Plaza de Oriente square.

It may come as a surpirse to learn that Madrid's Royal Palace is the largest royal palace in Western Europe. It was built on the site of the old Alcázar, the Moorish castle destroyed by fire in 1734, but the site has been occupied since the 10th century by the Moors, who having named the city's Manzanares river al-Magrit ("source of water"), referred to the area as Mayrit which became Magerit, then Madrid. The old city walls around this area may still be seen.

The palace was initially designed by Filippo Juvarra to accommodate the court of Felipe V, a total of more than 3000 courtiers. Juan Bautista Sacchetti initiated the building project in 1737 and Francisco Sabatini and Ventura Rodríguez terminated the works. It is surrounded by the beautiful Sabatini and Campo del Moro parks.

The palace has 1,450,000 sq ft of floor space and contains 3,418 rooms. It is filled with furniture, tapestries, paintings and ceramics as well as other important works of art and frescos by Tiépolo. Velázquez, Goya, Giordano and Mengs are all represented here amongst the dozens of valuable tapestries and paintings, making the palace one of Europe's most important museums.

》Sabatini Garden

These Classical-style gardens were built in the 1930s on the site of the former stables. Located in front of the north façade of the Royal Palace, the gardens, whose construction began during the Second Republic, were completed after the Civil War.

Their architectural and ornamental styling as an extension of the Royal Palace were enhanced on account of the exhibition of several sculptures that were originally planned to decorate the cornice of the palace. Their geometric design and fortunate location make them some of the most beautiful gardens in Madrid de los Austrias (Hapsburg Madrid).Read more