SPAIN 2026 (2)

 

At the end of our European trip, we returned to Madrid for two days.

On the first we took a train due south to visit Aranjuez with its famous royal palace. This was started in the 16^th century by Philip II, when less than half the proposed building was completed. 

 His study, with its fine painted ceiling, has been restored. Work started again in the 18^th century under Philip V (ruled 1700-1746), the first Bourbon king of Spain, and continued under his son Fernando VI and grandson Charles III, more or less completing the original plan but with serious revisions after a devastating fire in 1648. Charles III brought in the brilliant Italian architect Francesco Sabatini from Naples.

 A highlight of this period is the beautiful porcelain cabinet finished in 1765. 

The existing dining room was created for Charles IV, who lost his throne in Napoleon’s invasion. In the 19^th century, the ill-starred Queen Isabel II added some new structures and massively reassigned and redecorated the interior spaces, leaving basically what can be seen today. The highlights include her ballroom (relatively small and homely), throne room, bedroom, and study, and the stunning Arab cabinet inspired by El Alhambra. 

Gardens had already been laid out in the C18th gardens or even earlier,

 but Isabel embarked on their extensive development, making a large private park alongside the palace, garnished with  statues

 and box hedges

 and filled – now – with a mass of mature trees.

 A lovely shady place to walk on a hot afternoon after our lunch in a homely local taverna…

We also peeped into the Aranjuez campus of the King Juan Carlos University, once the barracks of the royal Guard.

 

The next day we visited Alcalá de Henares, northeast of Madrid. Here the university is the most imposing and historically important structure. It was founded by Cardinal Cisneros in 1499 and is the world’s oldest purpose-built university.

To the general public, however, Alcalá is best known as the birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes in 1547. In fact, he only lived there for four years and the original house no longer exists! But the municipality has garnered maximum tourist value from these scanty resources. A house has been built on the site to a design more or less typical of the epoch, which now houses a museum of Spanish fashion in the C16-17^th. Most of the clothes on display have been obtained from television, stage and film productions (well-researched it must be said). There is also a mock-up of a contemporary cobbler’s shop with tools and furniture as a reminder of the poet’s fairly humble origins – although a master-craftsman in any trade at that time could be an important figure. Outside in the street is a stone bench with brass figures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, where enthusiasts can have their photographs taken.

 A brand-new statue of Cervantes has been put up in the main square, recently re-opened after major refurbishment.

The church where baby Miguel was baptised was blown up by a bomb in the Spanish Civil War, but the remains are open to the public. Some of the stones were used to construct an air-raid shelter in the main square after the bombing; this was discovered during the refurbishment works and is now being excavated. There is also a magnificent cathedral where Cardinal Cisneros is buried, and which also suffered severe damage.

Apologies for the lack of photos in these two entries, but research in the internet will produce masses!!