Fascinated by the number of palaces that dot the Spanish landscape, I decided to visit one that was not so far away from Pantoja and indeed still within the Madrid province. It is in a nearby city called Aranjuez. This small city is situated between the Tagus and Jarama rivers. But its fame comes from the Royalty that it houses. King Felipe II in the 16th century had declared it a royal site, probably because of its geographical features and being in the plains of two important rivers in ancient Spain.
There are numerous royal palaces scattered all over Spain where the kings or queens and their families winter, summer, autumn and fall, or just go to get away whenever they felt like leaving town.
The Royal Palace of Aranjuez has however been converted to a museum with every furnishing and articles in the palace preserved in the condition they were several centuries ago. These include the king and queen’s bedrooms, baths, study rooms, diplomatic rooms, royal courts and every kind of setting you would expect in a king or queens quarters. The palace interior basically depicted the monarch’s daily lives at home.
One of my favorite rooms in the palace was a porcelain room that has every inch of wall and ceiling covered in porcelain figurines of people doing various daily activities. Imagine a mural that spans the entire wall and ceiling space in a small hall, but instead of painted colors, the mural is molded figurines to the minutest detail. I was saddened that picture taking are not allowed inside the palace, but at least I had good pictures of the exterior and the surrounding royal gardens.
The opulence in this palace oozed with incomprehensible wealth for that era. Surprisingly, their taste then could rival the taste of modern day billionaires. The physical palace itself was humongous, with adjoining rows of servants and military quarters discreetly flanking the mega mansion. The size is further boosted by the Royal Gardens that was a work of art by itself with unique blending of the watercourses diverted from the nearby rivers, in essence ensconcing the palace in the heart of a natural habitat as well as a technological powering of the water system in the palace. Maximizing the aquatic surrounding, intricate and ornamented fountains were erected all around the palace compound and gardens calling to mind a mythical Garden of Eden. They were the most elaborately detailed fountain structures I had seen in a long time.
No comments:
Post a Comment