Chapel of San Antonio de La Florida

ORIGINS

The origins of this chapel date back to 1732 when it was built, with an image of St. Anthony of Padua, and began to receive popular devotion. In fact, one of Madrid's most deeply rooted traditions is its pilgrimage, which is held on 13 June and which was, and still is, attended by young women who are due to get married.

In the 18th century, urban reforms forced the demolition of the primitive chapel of San Antonio (the work of Churriguera) on two occasions and the construction of a new one in another place. Its final relocation was due to the works of the new La Florida palace, a large estate (no longer extant), which gave its name to the chapel and had been acquired by Charles IV.

The king ordered the architect Felipe Fontana to build the new chapel, which took from 1792 to 1798, and Francisco de Goya decorated its vaults with a series of frescoes that are amongst his masterpieces.

 

THE FRESCOES

As soon as you enter the interior of the chapel, an explosion of light, life and colour fills the room. This is the mural series that decorates this small sanctuary, and which constitutes a turning point in Goya's career, since it combines the elements used by him up until then with the new techniques that he would later incorporate into his art.

Between 1987 and 2005, three restoration campaigns were carried out which first saw the complete rehabilitation of the building and then the cleaning and consolidation of the frescoes, which appear today in all their splendour.

 

TWIN CHAPEL AND GOYA'S TOMB

To guarantee the conservation of these paintings, the building was declared a National Monument in 1905 and later, in 1928, an identical church was built next to it, to continue worship and to preserve the original as a museum. By then, this chapel was also the burial place of Francisco de Goya, as in 1919 his remains had been moved here, brought from Bordeaux, where he died in 1828.