While the Parque del Retiro is located on the eastern edge of central Madrid, the Palacio Real, or Royal Palace, is located on the western edge. It's officially the residence of the royal family in Madrid, and is used occasionally for state functions (leaving tourists out of luck on such days), but the royal family has the good sense to not actually live there. It's way too big (1.45 million square feet), and the constant stream of gawking tourists would have to be irritating to the most patient of monarchs.

The palace is built on the same spot as a Moorish fortress that was built in the 9th Century, partly to defend the much more important city of Toledo from Christian invaders. This worked until 1085, when the Christians were able to take over. The fortress underwent a number of expansions and restorations over the ensuing centuries under a variety of monarchs and architects, until it burned up on Christmas Eve of 1734. The fire was tragic for a number of reasons, one of them being the loss of a great deal of artwork. But many paintings, including the famous Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez, were rescued by being thrown out of windows. The king at the time, Philip V, immediately started a rebuilding project, and construction proceeded from 1738 to 1755. Philip directed that no wood be used in the construction, except for the palace's doors and window frames, to prevent the occurrence of another disastrous fire. Decorations and artwork were added to the palace over the years. Much of the artwork found its way to the Prado, but a great deal remained as well.

Our visit to the palace began with an approach from the east, where we encountered the Plaza de Oriente. This plaza features several statues, the most prominent of which is an equestrian statue of Philip IV.



Entry to the palace is accomplished through its southeast corner, where admission is paid and visitors are directed toward the main entrance to the palace, by way of an immense, paved courtyard.



We entered the palace and were told to wait for the next English-language tour to depart. This didn't take long, and we were also told that we couldn't take pictures inside the palace. But fortunately for you, we'd taken the tour on the trip that had also taken us to the Prado in 2005, and the photography rules for the palace were also more relaxed then. So here are some pictures from 2005. They're pretty much the same thing we saw in 2010.









After the conclusion of the tour, we found ourselves back in the gigantic courtyard from which we'd entered the palace earlier. The admission price also included a visit to the armory, located at the southwest corner of the courtyard. We passed through and took a few pictures of the armor and weaponry on display, despite the rules. A few of these are also from 2005:



Near the exit from the armory was an overlook from which we had a nice view of a large park, the Campo del Moro. This park is named for the Moors who camped in the location during an unsuccessful attempt to retake the fortress early in the 12th Century.

Also included in the price of admission was a look at the royal pharmacy, which was on the opposite side of the courtyard and mostly consisted of densely packed shelves of containers with names of historical pharmaceutical ingredients on them.

Back in the courtyard, we couldn't miss the view of a huge church to the south. This was the Almudena Cathedral. This was our next destination.