Spain Holidays Travel

Archive for October, 2011

Madrid is well-known for the variety and character of its districts. They each have an individual identity and lifestyle that cannot be found anywhere else in the city. However, there are certain places that are a must-see in Madrid.We have selected 5 must-see places in the city; Read the rest of this entry »

The Royal Palace of Madrid (also known as the Palacio de Oriente) is the official residence of Juan Carlos I , King of Spain. It is considered the largest royal palace in Western Europe in terms of area, with 135,000 m² and more than 3418 rooms. It houses a valuable historical and artistic heritage, among which is the Palatine Stradivarius quintet, the world’s largest collection of these instruments, as well as very important collections of other artistic disciplines.

El Palacio de Real is really a suburb of Madrid and is on the way to the airport, only about 10 km from the city. This palace used to be Franco’s residence for 35 years until his death in 1975 and is still surrounded by a large military base.

History

The palace was built originally as a hunting pavilion in the 15th century on a piece of land that spreads 80 square kilometers (31 square miles). In the 16th century Carlos I ordered to refurbish the oldest of the buildings. Carlos III ordered to make the palace bigger and spent from January through March here hunting and living here with his family (he had 12 children, all with the same queen).

Its construction began in 1738, according to architect’s plans Filippo Juvara, significantly modified by his pupil Juan Bautista Sachetti. Juvara was inspired by Bernini’s unrealized project for the Palais du Louvre in 1665. This background made the general arrangement of the volumes as well as the configuration of the building as a function of not only royal residence, but also courteous to all their different needs, while taking into account the administrative facilities.

Francesco Sabatini, who was the architect of Palacio Real in Madrid and many other royal palaces, used the older part of the building as a base, and built a replica of the courtyard on the other side of the building, so now there is the courtyard of the Habsburgs that is the courtyard that you enter the building through, and the courtyard of the Bourbons, the replica of the first, on the opposite site.

It was the habitual residence of the kings of Spain until 1931. It continue to be held the main receptions, official events and ceremonies of state, while the private residence of the royal family’s Zarzuela Palace, where the current kings settled after their marriage in 1962 to give King Juan Carlos I to live at the Royal Palace. Charles III was the first monarch to continuously inhabited the palace.

The last monarch who lived in the palace of Alfonso XIII was continuous, although Manuel Azana, president of the Second Republic, also dwelt on it, making it the last head of state who did. During that period was known as the National Palace. There is still a room next to the Royal Chapel, which is known by the name of “Dispatch Azaña.” Another of the names used to refer to the building is the Palacio de Oriente, this name comes from the square which bears one of the balconies of the palace, the Plaza de Oriente, which is also the Teatro Real.

Inside the Palace

Its exterior walls consist of two parts: a base pad at the base and above it, provides a two-story upper body with a series of giant Tuscan pilasters at the center as well as the salient angles of the four facades, pillars composite order, the building is topped with a cornice and balustrade. In the main facade (south side), 130 meters long by 33 tall, extends an open space that forms the Plaza de Armas, similar to the burning castle. The palace has a total of 870 windows and 240 balconies that open onto walls and patio.

Located on the main floor of the palace’s south side, between the Throne Room and the Hall of Gasparini. Its considerable size and its three windows and balconies that directly overlook the Armory Square, made this stay one of the most important quarter of the King Carlos III.

In fact, this was “part where the king ate,” and as this act was important for the court ceremonial, the parlor had to be extended at the expense of a small adjoining room. In the early 1760′s, Carlos III commissioned to design and stucco Italian painter Matthias Gasparini, along with the adjoining antechamber and the famous hall of the southwest tower.

Gasparini completed work on the walls hung tapestries of the series of David, Solomon and Absalom, which were woven at the Royal Tapestry Factory in Madrid. Little remains of its original design, as during the reign of Charles IV and his son Ferdinand VII were introduced decorative neoclassical style empire.Only preserved stucco decorations in place in 1763 Juan Bautista Andreoli, as instructed by Francisco Sabatini, and ceiling frescoes painted by Antonio Rafael Mengs (1728-1779) with the representation-driven to the temple of immortality their virtues and military victories.

The Palacio Real’s outhouses

The palace outbuildings and annexes include the recently refurbished Armeria Real (Royal Armoury), a huge room full of guns, swords and armour, with curh curiosities as the suit of ammour worn by Carlos V in his equestrian portrait by Titian in the Prado.

Especially fascinating are the complete sets of armour, with all the original spare parts and gadgets for making adjustments. There is also an eighteenth-century Farmacia, a curious mixture of alchemist’s den and laboratory, whose walls are lined with jars labelled for various remedies.The Biblioteca Real (Royal Library) can now only be visited by prior arrangement for research purposes.

The gardens of Palacio Real

Immediately north of the palace, the Jardines, Sabatini provide a shady retreat and venue for summer concerts, while to the rear the larger, and far more beautiful, park of the Campo del Moro (April-Sept Mon-Sat 10arn-8pm, Sun 9am-8pm; Oct-March Mon-Sat 70am-6pm, Sun 9am-6pm; occasional closed for state visits; access only from the far west side off the Paseo de la Virgen del Puerto) affords shady walks and a splendid view of the western facade of the palace.

Since the times of Ferdinand VII this palace was the official residence of Spanish kings, because it was close to the city and well guarded by the military (still is).

You can get here by bus #601 from Moncloa or by car. If you go by car, go along Gran Via through Plaza de Espana in the direction of A-6 (A Coruna), go through the arch on Moncloa, follow M-30 to the exit to El Pardo, after the exit follow the signs. You will pass Zarzuela, La Quinta, and keep going until you see the sign for the Palacio Real. If you know where you are going, it will take you 20 minutes, if you don’t but just follow the signs, it will take you 30 minutes. But don’t worry, you won’t get lost.

The palace has only guided tours, and if you want an English-speaking guide, you may have to wait. Nowadays heads of state from foreign countries stay here when they come to Spain for official visits.

The Alcázar of Segovia, like many fortifications in Spain, started off as an Arab fort, but little of that structure remains. The Alcázar of Segovia (literally, Segovia Castle) is a stone fortification, located in the old city of Segovia, Spain. Rising out on a rocky crag above the confluence of the rivers Eresma and Read the rest of this entry »

The Alcázar of Seville (Spanish “Reales Alcázares de Sevilla” or “Royal Alcazars of Seville”) is a royal palace in Seville, Spain, originally a Moorish fort.

The Almohades were the first to build a palace, which was called Al-Muwarak, Read the rest of this entry »

El Palacio de Liria is a large building of XVIII century, residence of the House of Alba in Madrid and principal of his art collection and its archive, both of extraordinary value. Located in the numbers of the current 20-22 Princess Street , in an area formerly known as “Quarter of the Afflicted.” In this mansion that is the largest private house in Madrid (3,500 m2) and their gardens are the only privately owned listed highlighted in green in all levels of the city.

Palacio de Liria is an 18th-century palace of the Duchess of Alba, Read the rest of this entry »

El Palacio de las Dueñas is a city building in Spanish in Sevilla ( Andalusia ) and currently sits on the House of Alba . It was built between the XV and XVI and is a major historic homes in the city of great architectural and artistic for their valuable content. In this place was born the famous poet Antonio Machado .

History

The palace was founded by the family Pineda , who they had to sell in the years 1484 to Doña Catalina de Ribera money for urgent needs: they must pay a ransom by Don Juan de Pineda, taken prisoner by the Moors. The building became the property of the House of Alba after the marriage of the V Marchioness of Villanueva del Rio with the Duke of Alba IV . Here was born Carlos Falco , Marques de Griñón and Marquis Castelmoncayo ( Grandee of Spain ).

Its name comes from the monastery of Santa Maria de las Dueñas, which 1248 became known as Company of Dueñas , whose nuns were in charge of serving Queens and wives of kings San Fernando and Alfonso X el Sabio . This building was in the periphery and was destroyed in 1868 . It has been renovated over the centuries XVIII and XIX .

Building

The palace has many courtyards and buildings and offers several architectural styles: Gothic, Mudejar and Renaissance, containing samples and details with touches of Seville in the bricks, shingles, tiles, whitewashed and ceramics .It is decorated with mosaics, tiles, roof tiles and bricks with a touch of Seville, just as the House of Pilate , a picturesque Andalusian patio. In the arc of the main entrance to the palace you can see the shield of the Duchy of Alba in tile seventeenth century.

It has a typical Andalusian courtyard , like the House Pilate, and dominates the great outdoors, showing the majesty of a whole.

Behind the garden leads to a beautiful courtyard surrounded by arches with columns of white marble, adorned with pillars holding platerescos, plateresco a frieze showing too. On top of this gallery with arches built another Mudejar style.On this gallery with arches built another Mudejar style. The palace has at the bottom to one side of the gallery, a chapel, whose high altar is adorned with ceramic tiles and typically Seville.

Upstairs is a luxurious salon gold octagonal roof and paneled ceiling. The palace has undergone several reforms in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and its main attraction is the art collection it houses. In one of its rooms Antonio Machado was born and lived.

At the entrance to the palace you can see the shield of the Duchy of Alba in tile manufacturing Triana of the seventeenth century or eighteenth century, in the main arch.

The arc west of the courtyard in the lower galleries giving access to the building that was used as a chapel of the palace, also is Plateresque. The altar of the chapel contains several tiles with metallic reflections, typical of the sixteenth century Seville ceramics.

Climbing the top floor of the palace dominates a room whose ceiling is of octagonal shape of alfarje gold, sits on a painted frieze in the Renaissance style.

Art collection

One of its main attractions is the large and decorative art collection which contains, according to an inventory of the Junta de Andalucía amounts to 1,425 pieces, including works of art, furniture and other antiques. The newspaper El Pais (04/10/21) these goods have been subject to the laws of Andalusia, which prohibits the sale and forces holding them together in the palace.

It is important to the whole of Spanish art in the nineteenth and twentieth century’s ( Mariano Benlliure , Federico de Madrazo, Sorolla , Zuloaga , Gonzalo Bilbao , Carmen Laffón ), but has some previous pieces Dueñas: Jacopo Bassano ( The Crockery ), Sofonisba Anguissola , Annibale Carracci , Francesco Furini ( The Creation of Eve ), Luca Giordano , Giovanni Paolo Pannini , José de Ribera ( Christ crowned with thorns ), Francisco Antolínez , Joaquín Inza and a Virgin of Neri di Bicci (who chairs the altar of the chapel) . They are only a portion of the huge gallery belonging to this family, whose main jewels are kept in Madrid in the Palacio de Liria .

Dueñas likewise accumulated abundant antique furniture, ceramics, tapestries and many more decorative objects. Also preserves a drawing to watercolor by Jackie Kennedy during one of his stays in the 1960′s .

Trivia

On the entrance wall, a plaque indicates that one of the premises rented by the administrator of the parents of Duke Antonio Machado , was born and spent his childhood, the poet, and this is reflected in one of his writings:

“My childhood memories are of a courtyard in Seville, and a mature garden clear where the lemon; my youth, twenty years in the land of Castile; my story, sometimes I do not remember. “

In the early twentieth century the family of the engineer and Marquis Guglielmo Marconi , inventor of the telegraph, wireless, enjoyed the beautiful evening that organized the Dukes of Alba in the palace.

This tour will visit historic downtown streets with some of the most traditional of Seville and have the opportunity to meet unique monuments of artistic importance.

Start: Plaza del Salvador
End: c / Crib Read the rest of this entry »

The Lebrija Palace or Palace of the Countess of Lebrija or El Palacio de la Condesa de Lebrija can be found in one of Seville city centre’s busiest street, ‘Calle Cuna’, Read the rest of this entry »

The Palacio de la Aduana (“Customs Palace”) is a building in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, originally a customs house for the Port of Málaga.

The building was proposed by Manuel Martín Rodríguez, nephew and disciple of Ventura Rodríguez, in 1787 and approved by Charles III of Spain. Work began in 1791 under the direction of administrator general of Customs Pedro Ortega Monroy and architects Miguel del Castillo and Read the rest of this entry »

Most visitors to Málaga go to the Picasso museum and his house, as the painter is the most famous son of the city, but there’s a new art museum now which focuses on Andalucian art – the Museo Carmen Thyssen.

The Museo Picasso Málaga is a museum in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, the city where artist Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born. One of the world’s many Picasso museums, Read the rest of this entry »