The Palace Quarter: Power, Stone, and an Egyptian Temple

Teatro Real

Madrid's opera house since 1850, built on the site of an old laundry and shaped like a coffin.

You are standing in Plaza de Isabel II, facing the Teatro Real, Madrid's opera house. The building has a strange shape, an irregular hexagon that people joke looks like a coffin. That shape was not a choice. When the architect Antonio López Aguado designed it in 1818, he had to squeeze it into a plot already hemmed in by the remodelling of Plaza de Oriente.

The first stone was laid on 23 April 1818 under Ferdinand VII, but the theatre did not open until 19 November 1850, Queen Isabella II's birthday. The inaugural opera was Donizetti's La favorite. Before this building, the site held the Caños del Peral theatre, named after a public laundry. Madrid's opera crowd once dressed for Donizetti and Verdi where women had scrubbed clothes.

The current theatre closed in 1925 after Metro construction damaged the structure, stayed shut for 41 years, reopened as a concert hall in 1966, and finally returned to opera in 1997 after a seven-year renovation. Today it seats 1,746 people and has one of the most advanced stages in Europe. Turn around now. The statue in the middle of the square is Isabel II herself, the queen who opened this place.

When you are ready, walk west toward the Royal Palace. The Plaza de Oriente opens up directly ahead.

Plaza de Oriente

A monumental square designed in 1844, lined with twenty limestone statues of Spanish kings that were never meant to be here.

You are in the Plaza de Oriente, a square that did not exist until 1844. Before that, this was a tangle of medieval houses. Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother and briefly king of Spain, ordered them demolished. He wanted a grand open space facing the palace.

He was deposed before it was finished, and Queen Isabella II completed the job. Look at the two rows of limestone statues flanking the central gardens. There are twenty of them, five Visigothic kings and fifteen monarchs of the early Christian kingdoms of the Reconquest. They were carved between 1750 and 1753, not for this square but for the palace roof.

The original plan called for 108 statues along the parapet, but the architects worried the weight would collapse the structure. So most were stored away and later scattered across Madrid. These twenty ended up here in 1844. Look closely: the heads are interchangeable.

They were carved to be seen from the street far below, not from five metres away. Some are genuinely ugly. That is not a flaw; it is evidence of their original purpose. In the centre stands the equestrian statue of Philip IV.

It is the work of Pietro Tacca, based on a painting by Velázquez, and it was the first equestrian statue in the world where the horse rears on its hind legs without additional support. Galileo helped with the engineering. When you are ready, cross the square toward the palace gate.

Palacio Real

The largest palace in Western Europe, with 3,418 rooms, built on the ashes of the old Alcázar that burned on Christmas Eve 1734.

You are standing before the Royal Palace of Madrid. With 135,000 square metres of floor space and 3,418 rooms, it is the largest palace in Western Europe. The Spanish royal family does not live here; that happens at the Zarzuela Palace outside the city. This building is used for state ceremonies, banquets, and receiving foreign heads of state.

The palace occupies the site of the old Alcázar, a fortress that began as a 9th-century Muslim watchtower and grew into the Habsburg royal residence. On Christmas Eve 1734, a fire broke out in the rooms of the court painter Jean Ranc. The warning bells were mistaken for the call to mass, so no one came. The doors stayed shut to prevent looting, trapping people inside.

The fire burned for four days. Las Meninas was saved by throwing it out a window. Over 500 other paintings were lost. Philip V, the first Bourbon king, ordered a new palace in stone so it could never burn again.

Construction began in 1738 and finished in 1764. The architect Filippo Juvarra drew the first plans, but he died before work started. His pupil Giovanni Battista Sacchetti carried them out, with later contributions from Ventura Rodríguez and Francesco Sabatini. Charles III was the first monarch to live here.

Fifty rooms are open to the public. Inside you will find the main staircase by Sabatini, the Royal Chapel by Ventura Rodríguez with frescoes by Corrado Giaquinto, and the Stradivarius collection of string instruments. The palace also holds paintings by Caravaggio, Velázquez, Goya, and the world's only complete set of Stradivarius string quartets. Take your time inside.

When you come out, your next stop is the cathedral just to the south.