ROYAL PALACE OF MADRID, SPAIN

The Palacio Real de Madrid is the official residence of the Spanish Royal Family at the city of Madrid, but is only used for state ceremonies. King Juan Carlos and the Royal Family do not reside in the palace, choosing instead the more modest Palacio de la Zarzuela on the outskirts of Madrid. The palace is owned by the Spanish State and administered by the Patrimonio Nacional, a public agency of the Ministry of the Presidency. The palace is located on Bailén Street, in the Western part of down-town Madrid, East of the Manzanares River, and is accessible from the Ópera metro station. Several rooms in the palace are regularly open to the public, except during state functions.

The palace has 135,000 square metres (1,450,000 sq ft) of floorspace and contains 3,418 rooms. It is the second largest palace in Europe by floor area after Louvre Palace. The interior of the palace is notable for its wealth of art and the use of many types of fine materials in the construction and the decoration of its rooms. These include paintings by artists such as Caravaggio, Velázquez and Francisco de Goya and frescoes by Corrado Giaquinto, Juan de Flandes, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Anton Raphael Mengs. Other collections of great historical and artistic importance preserved in the building include the Royal Armoury, Porcelain, Watches, Furniture, Silverware and the world's only complete Stradivarius string quintet.

Campo del Moro Gardens, these gardens are so named because the Muslim leader Ali ben Yusuf allegedly camped here with his troops in 1109 during an attempted reconquest of Madrid. The first improvements to the area occurred under King Philip IV, who built fountains and planted various types of vegetation, but its overall look remained largely neglected. During the construction of the palace various landscaping projects were put forth based on the gardens of the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso, but lack of funds hampered further improvement until the reign of Isabel II who began work in earnest. Following the taste of the times, the park was designed in the Romanticist style. Fountains brought from the Royal Palace of Aranjuez were installed and curving pathways constructed. With the fall of Isabel II, the gardens suffered a period of abandonment and neglect during which parts of the design were lost. Under the regency of Maria Christina of Austria, rehabilitation work began which created the current design following the layout of the English gardens of 19th century