Association of EuropeanRoyal Residences

 

Josefa Haselböck, employee of the marketing department of Schönbrunn Palace, spent 4 weeks at the Royal Palace of Madrid in November - December 2009.

Terrace of the Royal Palace of Madrid

" Dr. Pilar Martín-Laborda, head of the department of “Programas culturales” gave me a very warm welcome at the Royal Palace and a brief introduction into the structures of Patrimonio Nacional. My tutor was Dª Elena González Poblet, Chief of the Department of Museos.

The Royal Palace is an enormous complex, the offices are very dislocated. Therefore it took me some time to get to know all relevant people and to find all offices. As my desk was located in the offices of the special exhibition’s team, I got some insight knowledge of the organisation of the exhibition “Brillos en Bronce”, which was inaugurated at the beginning of my stay. I found out that the whole infrastructure and the importance of special exhibitions were very different compared to ours in Schönbrunn. As there is no entrance fee for local visitors to the special exhibitions, there were many Spanish coming to see it. I observed that in Madrid there must be a completely different attitude towards museums, palaces and other cultural sites. Most of these institutions have at least one day free or some hours per day free of charge. And that makes people visit their cultural heritage.

I could not achieve the mission initially planned for me at the Royal Palace of Madrid which was to develop programmes for young people and local visitors. From the department of Museos I got an introduction in the Patrimonio’s special programmes for school groups and children. All those programmes were already well established and unfortunately there was no need to a further development. This was, though, no problem, as I found lots of other things to do and to discover. Generally, I was very interested in finding out how other institutions in other countries were structuring their teams and on which topics they were focusing. First of all, after a tour of the Palace and its attractions, I studied all info materials, information signs, the ticket offices, the visitor information centre, the audio guides, the souvenir shop and gave a feedback and my personal opinion to my tutors.But, of course, I was also very interested in comparing the customer services, cultural activities, the co-operation with tour operators and the Madrid and Spanish Tourist boards as well as the internal communication structures of the Royal Palace in Madrid and Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna. Besides, I wanted to see how Patrimonio Nacional managed all its different palaces, monasteries and other attractions all over the country and to compare this with Schönbrunn and its additional museums and sites in Vienna. I took the opportunity to study the Palacio’s ticketing system and its touristic activities, and its information policy and to compare it with our own system. Even though we work very differently, the outcome is similar: visitors with a high level of satisfaction.

Contrary to Schönbrunn Palace, Patrimonio Nacional has a broad cultural offer, such as concerts, performances, exhibitions, etc. So, I collected information about the budgets, sponsors, the organisation, the marketing activities, production of programmes and catalogues, etc. Additionally, I got the opportunity to attend lectures at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, held in the context of an educational programme put together by the University and the Patrimonio Nacional. Last but not least I supported the “cultural events’” team in organizing a European conference on the occasion of the exhibition “Brillos en Bronce” and attended the conference.

Thanks to this internship, I got to an idea of the functionality of Patrimonio Nacional, I learned a lot about the many differences between a public operated institution in a still existing monarchy (Palacio Real) and a privately operated Palace (Schönbrunn Palace) without any monarchs at all."

Although I had to face some inconveniences such as a lack of support in organizing a place to stay, getting access to a computer or a telephone or being supported in doing the pre-arranged duties, I wouldn’t want to miss my 4 weeks’ stay. Both, from a professional and a private point of view I learned a lot and made an extremely interesting inter-cultural experience. I would never have got access to all the people and all the facts about Patrimonio Nacional if not in the context of Sharing Skills in Europe. I could practice my Spanish and I made friends who I can still contact if I need information about the Palace.