Royal Palace of Aranjuez

THE ROYAL SITE FOR SPRING

Since the Reconquista, Aranjuez has been the property of the Order of Santiago, whose grand masters had a palace here on the site of the present one. At the end of the 15th century, in the time of Queen Isabel, the position of Grand Master of the Order was assimilated permanently into the role of the monarch, and the territories of Aranjuez thus became part of the group of palaces and country houses that made up the Royal Heritage.

Philip II set out to make his father Charles V's project of making Aranjuez a great Italian-inspired villa a reality. To this end, he commissioned Juan Bautista de Toledo to design the tree-lined streets that divide up the territory dedicated to gardens and crops. The dams built in the 16th century regulated the course of the Tagus and allowed the land to be irrigated by means of canals.

The Bourbons did not stop developing the splendour of the Royal Site, where they spent the whole of spring each year, from the end of Easter to June. Philip V had new gardens laid out, and Ferdinand VI included more tree-lined streets and a new settlement that reached its full development under Charles III and Charles IV. As Ferdinand VII and Isabella II continued to visit Aranjuez during the spring season, the regal splendour of the Royal Site de Aranjuez remained until 1870.

 

A CLASSICAL STYLE PALACE

The Royal Palace of Aranjuez, built by Philip II on the site of the former palace of the Masters of Santiago, owes its architecture to Juan Bautista de Toledo, who began it in 1564, and to Juan de Herrera, who was only able to finish half of it.

Despite its design being full of original features, the building is characteristic of Hapsburg classicism with alternating white stone and brick. The original plan was continued by Philip V in 1715, but not completed until 1752 by Ferdinand VI. The palace only remained for twenty years in the regular form conceived by John the Baptist of Toledo, and which had taken two centuries to complete. In 1775, Charles III entrusted the enlargement of two wings to Francesco Sabatini, giving the Palace its characteristic "U" shape. The Italian also designed the railings, which were not installed until 1973. The absence of this barrier could explain the success of the famous Aranjuez mutiny of 1808.

The decoration of the Official Halls that form part of the public visit is mainly from the Bourbon age. Amongst these spaces, you will be able to see the Queen's Dressing Room, the Ballroom, the Gala Dining Room... and exotic and surprising spaces like the Arabic Room, the Porcelain Room and the Chinese Room, decorated with 200 paintings given to Isabella II in 1846 by the Emperor of China.

 

THE KING´S GARDEN, THE ISLAND GARDEN, THE PARTERRE AND THE PRINCE´S GARDEN

Philip II, a great lover of gardens, made a special effort with Aranjuez: surviving areas from this period are the Island Garden, designed by architect Juan Bautista de Toledo, and the King's Garden next to the Palace, inspired by Italian Renaissance gardens and whose current aspect is thanks to Philip IV. On the Island, most of the fountains are due to Philip IV, although the Bourbons continued to enrich it with details such as the benches of Charles III.

Philip V added two new French-style gardens to the existing ones: the Parterre in front of the palace and the far end of the Island Garden, called La Isleta, where he installed the Fountain of the Tritons that Isabella II had brought to the Campo del Moro.

The Prince's Garden owes its name and creation to the son and heir of Charles III who, in the 1770s, began to use the old Ferdinand VI pier as a recreational pavilion and to develop an Anglo-French style landscape garden around it, directly influenced by the gardens of Marie-Antoinette in the Petit Trianon.

 

REAL CASA DEL LABRADOR

This small palace stands at the edge of the Prince's Garden, and it was called the Labourer's House because of its original, relatively modest appearance. Charles IV, also the Prince of Asturias, wanted to build a "country house" at his residence in Aranjuez for his morning rest, lunches with friends, concerts... and other recreational activities. From 1798, the sovereign decided to transform the rustic house into the luxurious mansion we know today.

 

ROYAL BARGES MUSEUM

This is undoubtedly one of the most unique monographic museums of the Spanish royal collections. Located in the Prince's Garden near the pier, it has one of the most spectacular collections of boats that the kings of Spain used to sail the Tagus. The most outstanding of these is the barge that belonged to Charles IV, built in Cartagena and decorated by Salvador Maella, and the most spectacular and oldest in the museum, which dates back to the reign of Philip IV. 

 

 

World Heritage Cities - Aranjuez Cultural Landscape