Royal Palace of Madrid: The Colossus of the Bourbons

Why is it significant?

Step out onto the vast granite Plaza de la Armería and gaze up at the colossal white facade of the Palacio Real de Madrid.

Key Facts

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Step out onto the vast granite Plaza de la Armería and gaze up at the colossal white facade of the Palacio Real de Madrid. Spanning one hundred and thirty-five thousand square meters with over three thousand four hundred rooms, this is by floor area the largest functioning royal palace in Western Europe—almost double the size of Buckingham Palace or Versailles!

The palace stands on the high cliff where Madrid began: in the ninth century, Muslim Emir Muhammad the First of Córdoba constructed a fortified alcázar here named Mayrit to guard Toledo from Christian incursions. On Christmas Eve of seventeen thirty-four, a massive fire completely destroyed the old Habsburg palace. King Philip the Fifth, Spain's first Bourbon king, ordered this immense palace built entirely of stone and brick, with no wood allowed in the walls so it could never burn down again.

Italian architects Filippo Juvarra and Giovanni Battista Sacchetti designed this baroque masterpiece using dazzling white stone from nearby Colmenar de Oreja. Inside, rooms are adorned with frescoes by Tiepolo, Stradivarius violins, and the Spanish royal crown.

Turn across the plaza to face the twin neo-Gothic towers of Almudena Cathedral.