Four Castles

During the reign of the Bourbons, the monarchs built several palaces using French style architecture and gardens in Versailles as inspiration. The winter home was El Palacio Real in Madrid. It is a massive palace that was used by the monarchs into the 20th century. Each room was decorated in a distinctive pattern using various color schemes and decorative designs to made each room unique. Some rooms had hand woven tapestries depicting famous scenes from history or mythology. Others boasted paintings from famous artists showing portraits of the monarchs or additional famous events. Other rooms used decorative tiles or vases from other parts of the world (the orient or Middle East). Some rooms were painted in the style of the Cistene Chapel. Others held statues of famous people from history or mythology. The amazing thing was how almost every inch of the walls and ceilings were painted down to the smallest detail to match the style that was being used. All the furniture, paintings, etc. were originals. Naturally they were roped off and guards were in every room.
The spring home was the Royal Palace at Aranjuez. Although this palace was smaller than the one in Madrid, the rooms were painted with just as much detail. Some were even more impressive than the ones in Madrid. There were gardens and statues outside the palace including a massive park which is the largest fenced park in Europe. We took a small train tour through the park and city, but I think it would have been more enjoyable to walk around them at my own pace.
The summer home was La Granja located at the base of the mountains outside Segovia. Although the rooms weren´t as gaudy as the other two palaces, their elegance was impressive. The collection of tapestries there were the best I´ve ever seen and included a masterpiece depicting Rafael´s famous painting of the Last supper. The weavers used golden threads in sections to make the faces of Christ and the apostles gleam and shine in the light. The most impressive part of this palace were the gardens - acres and acres of fountains, statues, flower beds, ornately trimmed hedges, trees, and footpaths. I could have spent all day exploring the palace and ground without getting bored. Four days each year, they have all 100plus fountains going at the same time. The main fountain uses a natural system using captured rain water that runs throughout the summer on its own power.
The autumn palace is called the Escorial. Although the rooms weren´t as ornately decorated in this palace, it is possibly the most famous because almost every king, queen, prince and princess of Spain since the 1500s are buried in the massive sepulchre in the subterranean levels of this palace. Although I could never live in such gaudy homes, it was pretty impressive to see the exquisite collections of paintings, tapestries, paintings, and other authentic furnishes from an age when artisans took pride in hand decorated beauty instead of austere functional designs that are prominent today.
Until next time, saludos from Spain.