Royal Palace of Madrid — palace
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Royal Palace of Madrid

  • 2 min read
  • 40.418° N 3.714° W

Interesting facts

  • The fire that destroyed the old Alcázar in 1734 burned for four days; the alarm bells were at first mistaken for a call to Christmas Eve Mass.
  • Some paintings were saved by being thrown out of the windows, but Velázquez's Expulsion of the Moors was lost in the flames.
  • Filippo Juvarra drew his design from Bernini's unbuilt plans for the Louvre in Paris.
  • Many of the stone statues of Spanish monarchs carved in 1750–1753 to adorn the palace now line the Plaza de Oriente and the Sabatini Gardens instead.
  • Statues of the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II and the Inca emperor Atahualpa stand among the sculptures on the palace facade.
  • The Sabatini Gardens were laid out from 1933 on the site of the royal stables, but the public was let in only in 1978.
  • The Throne Room's double throne is flanked by four bronze lions, alongside bronze figures of the Cardinal Virtues and the planets.
  • The Royal Armoury keeps the armour Charles V wore at the Battle of Mühlberg, the same suit Titian painted in his famous equestrian portrait.
  • During the Second Spanish Republic the building was renamed the Palacio Nacional, the National Palace.
  • The wedding banquet of Prince Felipe and Letizia Ortiz was held in the palace's central courtyard on 22 May 2004.

Why it is worth it

The Royal Palace of Madrid is the largest royal palace in Europe: a vast square block of grey granite and white limestone with more than 3,400 rooms and over 135,000 m² of floor space, standing in the western part of central Madrid, on the side of the city facing the Manzanares. It is the official residence of the Spanish royal family, though today it is used mainly for state ceremonies.

The site has been fortified for more than a thousand years. Muhammad I, the Umayyad emir of Córdoba, built a fortress here between about 860 and 880, and on its foundations grew the Alcázar of the Spanish kings. On Christmas Eve 1734 a fire that started in the rooms of the court painter Jean Ranc destroyed the Alcázar, along with many works of art; Velázquez's Las Meninas was saved. Philip V, the first Bourbon king of Spain, ordered a new palace in stone. The design was entrusted to the Italian architect Filippo Juvarra and continued by his disciple Giovanni Battista Sacchetti; from 1760 Francesco Sabatini enlarged the building for Charles III. Built between 1738 and 1755 in a late Baroque manner leaning towards classicism, it was first lived in by Charles III in 1764; the row of statues of kings that originally crowned the balustrade was taken down under him to give the building a more classical look.

The state rooms are among the richest in Europe. The Throne Room has a ceiling painted by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, the Apotheosis of the Spanish Monarchy,, and the Gasparini Room is a complete Rococo interior. The palace also holds the Royal Chapel, the Royal Pharmacy, the Royal Library and the Royal Armoury, counted among the finest collections of arms and armour in the world, as well as the only complete quintet of string instruments by Antonio Stradivari. The Plaza de la Armería separates the palace from the Almudena Cathedral, and the Sabatini Gardens and the Campo del Moro park spread below it. The palace belongs to the Spanish state and is managed by Patrimonio Nacional.

Getting there

The palace stands in the centre of Madrid, on Calle de Bailén, and the nearest metro station is Ópera. The nearest airport is Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD), about 15 km away in a straight line.

Plan your visit

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Nearby places

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Spain 150The Most Beautiful Palaces in Spain 10The Most Beautiful Castles, Palaces and Fortresses in Spain 18The Most Beautiful Palaces 91The Most Beautiful Castles, Palaces and Fortresses 302

From the encyclopaedia

The Royal Palace of Madrid is the official residence of the Spanish royal family and is used primarily for state ceremonies. With over 135,000 m2 (1,450,000 sq ft) of floor space and 3,418 rooms, the Royal Palace of Madrid is the largest palace in Western Europe, the largest royal palace in Europe, and among the largest palaces in the world.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

40.41795, -3.71431per Wikidata