The story of this place
On Christmas Eve 1734 the old Habsburg Alcázar of Madrid burned down, and Velázquez masterpieces were flung from windows to save them. Philip V, the first Bourbon king, seized the chance to build a modern palace of stone rather than wood—so it could never burn—completed around 1755 with some 3,400 rooms, making it the largest functioning royal palace in Western Europe. Tiepolo frescoed its ceilings; a Stradivarius quartet still sits inside. Though the royal family no longer lives here, it remains the site of state ceremonies. From its balconies the Second Republic was proclaimed in 1931 as King Alfonso XIII slipped quietly into exile.