The Royal Palace of Madrid: The Colossus of Three Thousand Rooms

Why is it significant?

Stand in the center of Plaza de Oriente and gaze upon the colossal, blindingly white limestone facade of the Palacio Real.

Key Facts

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Stand in the center of Plaza de Oriente and gaze upon the colossal, blindingly white limestone facade of the Palacio Real. Spanning one hundred and thirty-five thousand square meters with three thousand four hundred and eighteen rooms, this is by floor area the largest active royal palace in all of Western Europe, nearly double the size of Buckingham Palace or Versailles.

On Christmas Eve in seventeen thirty-four, the medieval Moorish and Habsburg fortress Alcázar burned to the ground. King Philip the Fifth, the first Bourbon monarch of Spain who grew up in Versailles, seized the chance to erect an indestructible monument: he ordered Italian architect Filippo Juvarra to design a palace built entirely of solid stone and brick, with strictly no wood used in its structural framing.

Step inside the Throne Room: scarlet velvet walls woven with silver threads, Venetian chandeliers of rock crystal, and four gilded bronze lions cast for King Philip the Fourth guard the two golden thrones beneath a ceiling fresco painted by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.

Walk down the monumental north terrace stairs into the manicured Sabatini Gardens.