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El Pardo Royal Palace

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9 reviews of El Pardo Royal Palace

The Palace and the Prince´s House

Excellent

Today we´re going outside of Madrid to El Prado, which is one of Madrid´s many neighborhoods. I get on the A-6 highway (headed towarsd La Coruña), and once I get to the Puerta de Hierro I merge onto M-30. From there, we continue to follow the M-30 until we reach El Prado. We´ll drive about 6 kilometers on the M-605, the highway that travels by hundred year old oak trees. It´s not out of the ordinary to see some deer or wild boar in that area. It´s an impressive sightseeing all of this nature just eight kilometers outside of Puerta del Sol, the center point of the Spanish capital (El Prado has over 15,000 hectares in total).


As we cruise up to the town, we arrive at the military building and find the lavish palace´s metal entrance gates awaiting us. Behind the gates stands the lavish palace we´ve come to see. I park the car without any problems (seeing as it´s a weekday) and I head out on foot for a quick lap around the town, seeing as it´s a magnificent day. I quickly notice that the town has hardly changed during the past fifty years that I´ve been visiting it. At the end of my walk, I arrive at the palace´s entrance gates. Upon entering, the first thing to see is the exceptionally well-cared for garden. The entire complex is generally in a perfectly conserved states. The facilities are regularly used as a residence for foreign chiefs of the state that visit Spain. As a result, you can only visit the palace on days when no illustrious leaders inhabit its rooms. I then head into the building through its grand side door.

Here´s a quick dose of the palace´s history: it was Carlos I who ordered construction at the base of an ancient castle that was ruined during the Enrique IV´s reign, during the first half of the 15th century. The old castle was constructed above Enrique III´s hunting grounds, conserving the moat from the first castle.

Construction on the palace was completed under Felipe II´s supervision, but in the 17th century a horrific fire burned it to the ground. Felipe III ordered its reconstruction. With the arrival of the Bourbons, Carlos III ordered a complete reconstruction of the building. Its final product is the palace that we see today. Francesco Sabatini was entrusted with the construction. He was also the architect responsible for the Royal Palace of Madrid. An interesting fact is that one of the palace´s wings maintains the style of the Austrian building,.

In 1885, King Alfonxo XII died in this palace and it later became the residency of the Chief of State starting in 1939, when General Francisco Franco took power, until his death in 1975. Afterwards, as we´ve previously mentioned, it has been used as a residents for foreign Chiefs of State visiting Spain.

Leaving the palace, I head back to where I came from. I turn right on the sidewalk and 500 meters ahead is the Casita del Príncipe (the Prince´s Quarters) -- the admission ticket also validates your entrance into the Prince´s Quarters. Carñps III mandated construction on the Casita del Príncipe in 1784, with the purpose of creating a recreational house for his son, Carlos IV. Juan de Villanueva was the architect in charge of the construction. Although it has small dimensions, the building was later highlighted during the restoration that took place 18 years after the abandonment of the building after the death of Franco. Inside, it´s barely furnished. The walls are covered in tapestries. In general, it´s a perfect structure, an ideal example of the arduous reconstruction work the palace went through. Outside the Casita, we can still consider a part of the original neighboring garden. A staircase stands out with a series of holly tress that deserve our respect due to their great size. The same can be said for the rest of the complex, it´s been perfectly cared for.
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