Royal Palace of Madrid

Madrid's Royal Palace is the official residence of the Spanish royal family, though the king actually lives in the more modest Zarzuela Palace outside the city and uses this one for state ceremonies, banquets and receptions. Its scale is staggering: with more than three thousand rooms it is the largest royal palace in Western Europe, built in pale granite and white limestone on the bluff above the Manzanares river where the old Moorish fortress and then the Habsburg Alcázar stood until the Alcázar burned on Christmas Eve 1734. Philip V, the first Bourbon king of Spain, who had grown up at Versailles, ordered a replacement that would announce the new dynasty, and Charles III was the first king to live in it, from the 1760s. The visit follows a route of around fifty rooms on the main floor, and they are some of the most lavish interiors in Europe. The grand staircase sweeps up beneath a painted ceiling; the Hall of Columns, where Spain signed its accession to the European Community in 1985, is lined with tapestries; the Throne Room, all crimson velvet and gilded mirrors, has a ceiling fresco by Giambattista Tiepolo; and the Gasparini Room is a riot of rococo stucco and silk embroidery made for Charles III. The royal collections include paintings by Velázquez, Goya and Caravaggio, a quartet of decorated Stradivarius instruments, clocks, porcelain and silver. Across the courtyard, the Royal Armoury holds one of the finest collections of armour in the world, including suits made for Charles V and his horses, and the Royal Pharmacy preserves centuries of jars and remedies.

The palace stands at the edge of old Madrid, and the setting is part of the experience. The vast Plaza de la Armería, the parade ground in front of the main façade, faces the Almudena Cathedral across the square — begun in the nineteenth century and only consecrated in 1993 — and opens on its west side to a balustrade with views over the Campo del Moro gardens and the Casa de Campo to the mountains beyond. On the opposite, eastern side, the Plaza de Oriente, laid out by Joseph Bonaparte, is a formal garden of clipped hedges and statues of Spanish kings, with the Teatro Real opera house closing the view. The Sabatini Gardens to the north are free and lovely in the evening. Next door, the Gallery of Royal Collections, opened in 2023 and built into the hillside below the cathedral, displays tapestries, carriages, paintings and treasures from the royal sites on a separate ticket.

Visiting well: book a timed ticket, since queues at the door can be long in high season, and allow ninety minutes for the state rooms plus extra for the armoury and pharmacy, which are included in the general ticket. The palace closes, wholly or partly, at short notice for official ceremonies, so check the calendar before you go. Photography is restricted in some rooms. EU citizens and residents can enter free during set late-afternoon slots on certain weekdays, but those times bring crowds. Audio guides and guided tours are well worth it here, because the rooms are thick with history that the labels barely hint at. The Changing of the Guard takes place on Wednesdays and Saturdays at the Puerta del Príncipe, and a far grander Solemn Changing of the Guard, with cavalry and band, fills the Plaza de la Armería on the first Wednesday of most months.

The palace anchors a half-day in the Madrid of the Austrias, the old Habsburg town. Afterwards, walk past the cathedral and down Calle Mayor to the Plaza Mayor, or cross the Plaza de Oriente to the café terraces facing the palace, among the most elegant places in the city for a drink at sunset. For lunch, the lanes around the Plaza de Ramales and the Mercado de San Miguel are a few minutes away, and the Temple of Debod is a short walk north for the sunset over the Casa de Campo. Children tend to love the armoury more than the state rooms, so put it at the end of the visit as a reward.