Palacio Real (Madrid)

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Courtyard of the palace on the south side
Throne room of the palace
Floor plan of the castle

The Royal Palace ( Spanish Palacio Real ) is the Madrid city ​​palace and the official residence of the Spanish royal family .

history

An Alcázar , a Moorish castle , stood on the site of today's palace until the 18th century . A fire on Christmas Eve 1734 destroyed this residence used by the Spanish kings and created the need for a new building.

Spain was in a long phase of decline: income from the colonies dried up and the War of the Spanish Succession destabilized the country. The Bourbons had come to power through the war and the still young royal family wanted to demonstrate their strength by building the new palace. All over Europe, the princes adorned themselves with magnificent baroque buildings. Philip V wanted a building on par with the Escorial of the Habsburgs and in 1734 commissioned the architect Filippo Juvarra to start planning. However, Juvarra died in 1736 during the planning phase , which is why the Italian Juvarra student Giovanni Battista Sacchetti ( called Juan Bautista Sachetti in Spain ) was entrusted with the continuation of the planning and the new building. Since Juvarra had proposed an even larger palace elsewhere, Sacchetti had to re-plan a building on the site of the old Alcázar. Since the construction of the four-wing complex dragged on until completion in 1764, Sacchetti, because of his old age, had to entrust the work to the young engineer Francisco de Sabatini until the palace was completed. Sacchetti died in the year of completion. King Charles III On December 1, 1764, his family moved into the first premises in the new building at the location of the old Alcázar.

The palace

Rear wing with the chapel dome

In front of the castle is a wide courtyard from which the “Puerta del Príncipe”, the Prince's Gate, leads into the inner courtyard of the square complex. The high baroque facades, which are decorated with colossal pilasters , crowning vases and statues, rise above a rustic-style ground floor . The gallery wings of the court of honor are extensions from the 19th century, the rear facade of the palace is dominated by the dome of the palace chapel .

The palace is one of the largest palaces in Western Europe and is almost twice the size of Buckingham Palace or Versailles Palace . The Palacio Real includes around 2,000 halls , salons and cabinets for courtly purposes, but a total of 3,418 rooms on 135,000 square meters. The most important of the parade rooms include the throne room, the mighty staircase, the halberd hall, the mirror gallery and the palace chapel. The interiors are decorated in a variety of styles, there are halls that transition from Baroque to Classicism , and the old tradition of the Moors is also taken up again in some forms. Since the palace is also used as a museum, paintings by great masters such as Goya , Velázquez , Rubens , Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Caravaggio hang here today . The weapon collections are also among the largest in the world.

The Spanish royal family does not live in the castle, but in the much more modest Zarzuela Palace northwest of Madrid. The large ballrooms of the Palacio Real are used for representation purposes and state receptions. For these reasons, parts of the palace are open to the public at limited times and are one of the tourist highlights of Madrid.

  • Royal family on the balcony

  • The Campo Moro with a view of the castle

chapel

The organ in the palace chapel is the work of the organ builder Jordi Bosch i Bernat (1739–1800). The instrument has 44 registers on three manuals and pedal , including seven pure treble registers. All other registers are divided into the bass and treble side, with nine registers (see the registers marked B. and D.) differing on the treble side from the bass side.

Disposition of the Bosch organ
I Rückpositiv C–
1. Violón 8th'
2. Tapadillo 4 '
3. Quincena 2 '
4th Lleno III
5. Octava de corneta (D) 4 '
6 a. Nazardos III (B)
6 b. Corneta IV (D)
7th Tiorba (D) 16 '
8th. Trompeta Real 8th'
9. Voz humana a la francesa 8th'
II Echowerk C–
10. Flautado 13 8th'
11. Violón 8th'
12. Flauta Travesera II (D) 8th'
13. Tapadillo 4 '
14th Lleno III
15 a. Címbala III (B)
15 b. Címbala IV (D)
16 a. Nazardos III (B)
16 b. Corneta VI (D)
17th Trompeta magna (D) 16 '
18th Trompeta Real 8th'
19th Clarín (D) 8th'
20 a. Bayoncillo (B) 4 '
20 b. Chirimía alta (D) 4 '
21st Voz humana en ecos 8th'
III main work C–
22nd Flautado 26 16 '
23. Flautado 13 8th'
24. Violón 26 16 '
25th Violón 13 8th'
26th Octava 4 '
27. Tapadillo 4 '
28. Flauta Dulce II (D) 8th'
29 Docena y Quincena 2 2 / 3 '
30th Lleno V 2 '
31 a. Nazardos IV (B)
31 b. Corneta VI (D)
32. Corneta Tolosana III
33. Trompeta de 52 (D) 32 '
(Continuation)
34. Orlo de 26 16 '
35. Trompeta Real 8th'
36 a. Bassoon (B) 8th'
36 b. Oboe (D) 8th'
37. Trompeta Magna 16 '
38 a. Clarín de bajos (B) 8th'
38 b. Clarín (D) 8th'
39 a. Chirimía (B) 4 '
39 b. Clarin 2 (D) 8th'
40 a. Violeta (B) 2 '
40 b. Chirimía (D) 4 '
41. Viejas 16 '
42. Orlo de 13 8th'

Pedals C–
43. Cons of 26 16 '
44. Cons of 13 8th'

The park and the cathedral

Opposite the main courtyard of the Palacio Real is the La Almudena Cathedral . Although the square gives the impression of a planned complete work, the church is younger than the actual castle. Construction of the church began in 1879 and continued into the 20th century . The historicist building, which is dedicated to St. Mary of the Almudena (meaning "from the citadel"; a title of the Mother of God as Patroness of Madrid) and which only became the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Madrid in 1993 , combines different styles. The main facade facing the castle with the twin towers corresponds to the facade of the palace with its columned galleries and forms an architectural counterweight to it.

The palace includes the large palace park , a well-known view of the complex leads from the spacious "Campo del Moro" to the palace. The original baroque park has been preserved in its basic features to this day, especially the "Sabatini gardens", which are decorated with trimmed hedges and parterres, form a splendid unit with the palace.

  • gallery

  • Vaulted ceiling of the Great Staircase

  • Venus and volcano , ceiling fresco by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1762–1766)

  • View into the vaulted ceiling of the chapel

  • The armory

  • La Almudena Cathedral seen from the Palace Square

literature

  • The residential palace in Madrid . In: Illustrirte Zeitung . No. 30 . J. J. Weber, Leipzig January 20, 1844, p. 49-50 ( books.google.de ).
  • Pilar Benito: Palacio Real de Madrid. Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid 2002, ISBN 84-7120-309-X (in German).
  • Juan A. Hernández Ferrero: Palacios reales del Patrimonio Nacional . Editorial Lunwerg, Barcelona 1997, ISBN 84-7120-218-2 .
    • German translation: Spanish royal palaces. Evidence of a national history . Könemann, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-8290-2231-X .
  • Gisela Noehles-Doerk: Reclam's Art Guide Spain, Vol. 1: Madrid and Central Spain. Reclam, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-15-010339-8 , pp. 72-87.

Web links

Commons : Palacio Real (Madrid)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patrimonio Nacional: Palacio Real de Madrid ( Memento of January 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (Spanish)
  2. ↑ More information about the organ


Coordinates: 40 ° 25 '4 "  N , 3 ° 42' 51"  W.