Association of EuropeanRoyal Residences

Symbol of the King’s power.

Philip V originally intended this palace as a place to retire to after he has decided to abdicate in favour of his son Louis, and it reflects the magnificence of the palaces and gardens of a Spanish king who was the grandson of the Roi Soleil and had spent his childhood at the court of Versailles.

The idea of splendour and identifying the King’s power with his residence is so rooted in the 18^th Century that it is also found in other European dynasties as they began to build their palaces outside of their capital cities.

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If there is any king, of those who inhabited the New Royal Palace in Madrid, who is characterised by an absolutely European view of historical events and the role of the monarchy, it is Charles III (1716-1788).

This was only natural considering that he was the son of a French man, Philip V, and an Italian woman, Isabella Farnese, thanks to whom he was made duke of Parma and Tuscany in 1731 and was subsequently king of Naples between 1735 and 1759, the year he returned to Spain as his step-brother Ferdinand VI’s successor to the Spanish throne.

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The palace

Fire destroyed the former Habsburg Alcázar palace on 24 December 1734. The reconstruction work began only four years later under Philip V, who chose the design by the Italian architect Giambattista Sacchetti rather than the one initially submitted by his master architect Filippo Juvarra.

The idea was to build a palace whose architectural characteristics would embody the symbolic representation of power in fashion at the time and with a structure sound enough to be resistant to fire, the nightmare of Spanish palaces—a palace “for Eternity”, as the foundation stone states.

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