Royal Palace of El Pardo

Monte del Pardo was highly regarded as a hunting ground by the kings of Castile in the 14th century, and a small castle had existed there since the 15th century, built by Henry III and Henry IV on the site of the current palace.

Charles V ordered its complete rebuilding, entrusting this to Luis de Vega, who made a small traditional Spanish square fortress with protruding towers at the corners and ringed by a moat, in the Plateresque Castilian style, as shown by the main entrance and the courtyard galleries, where the coats of arms and emblems evoke the Emperor.

The palace was finished by Philip II, who introduced Flemish-style slate roofs here for the first time, with high trestles and spikes, and who decorated its interior in the Italian style with large frescoes and with the portrait gallery, which included masterpieces of this genre by Tiziano, Antonio Moro and their followers. Unfortunately, a fire in 1604 completely destroyed all this decoration except for the Gaspar Becerra room in the southwest tower.

Philip III commissioned Francisco de Mora to rebuild it and tried to maintain his father's idea with abundant fresco decoration, with the ceilings by Carducho and Cajés standing out amongst those preserved. Later on, Philip V completely altered the interior to accommodate the entire court, as he lived there for three months a year during the winter.

Charles III used the same reason to begin the extension of this residence, ordering Sabatini to duplicate the existing palace by making a (Bourbon) courtyard just like the one that already existed (Austrias), with a smaller one in between them for carriages to pass through.

The Bourbons, particularly Philip V and Charles III, habitually used this palace as a residence during the months of January, February, March and part of April. Its winter use gave rise to the commission of important collections of tapestries; under Charles III, Goya, the Bayeu family and other painters created the templates for these tapestries made in the Royal Factory of Santa Bárbara in Madrid.

Charles IV stopped living in El Pardo every year and ordered several collections of cloths to be taken to San Lorenzo de el Escorial which were never reassembled. Ferdinand VII redecorated the palace with other tapestries.