Royal Palace Belgium

Legendary

The official palace of the King and Queen of the Belgians

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On Christmas Eve 1734, a fire broke out in the old royal fortress of Madrid and burned for four days. When it was over, the building was gone, along with hundreds of paintings.

One painting made it out. Servants threw Las Meninas, now the most famous work in Spain, out a window to save it.

The fortress had stood on that hill for centuries. A Muslim emir built the first fort there in the 9th century, and later the kings of Castile turned it into a castle called the Alcázar.

In the 1500s, Charles I and his son Philip II made it the permanent home of the Spanish royal family. It stayed that way until the fire.

King Philip V decided almost immediately to rebuild. He was the first king of Spain from the Bourbon family, which also ruled France, and he wanted something to rival the palaces back home.

He hired an Italian architect, Filippo Juvarra, who drew up plans for an enormous Baroque palace. Juvarra died in 1736 before work could begin, and his student Giovanni Battista Sacchetti took over.

The first stone was laid in 1738. This time, the builders used almost no wood, only stone, brick, and iron, so it could never burn down again.

Construction finished in 1755, but decorating took years more. Charles III became the first king to actually live there, moving in with his court in 1764.

The finished palace has 3,418 rooms and about 135,000 square meters of floor space, making it the largest royal palace in Europe. The grand staircase alone has more than 70 steps.

The Spanish royal family doesn't live there today. They use it for state ceremonies and official events, and the rest of the time it's open to visitors.

Climb the main staircase and look up at the painted ceilings on the way to the Throne Room. Visit the Royal Armory to see the armor of Spanish kings and their horses. Look for the Royal Chapel, which holds a set of violins, violas, and a cello made by Antonio Stradivari, the most famous instrument maker in history.