Spain | Madrid: The Royal Palace of Madrid (6)

After soaking up Madrid’s laid-back atmosphere, we headed to the famous Royal Palace of Madrid. It’s one of Spain’s most iconic buildings, and a quick search online revealed that it’s actually the largest royal palace in Europe by floor area. Even before going inside, just standing outside was enough to feel its sheer opulence. I looked up a little background: the palace was completed in 1755, has a little over 3400 rooms by rough estimate, and blends Italian and Spanish architectural styles. With that little bit of background under our belts, we could hardly wait to get inside and see it for ourselves.

At the entrance, we’d been queuing for about ten minutes when a ticket attendant started shouting something to the crowd. At first, we listened for a while and were pretty confused, but eventually we managed to catch “only cash.” Judging by everyone’s reactions, we figured that tickets bought on-site could only be paid for in cash. Luckily, we’d brought some cash along just in case. We later learned that the ticket office’s card payment system had crashed. Well… we definitely hadn’t expected to run into that kind of unexpected situation. Having some cash in your pocket really does come in handy when it counts, hahaha.

As soon as we entered the palace, we could feel its grandeur. The white stone walls gleamed in the sunlight, radiating luxury at every turn.

Walking into the palace interior, we immediately saw a sculpture of a king. Then we looked up, and there was an enormous mural covering the ceiling above us. Until then, I’d pretty much only seen murals on this scale on TV. Honestly, seeing one in person really is different: you can truly appreciate the delicate brushwork, not to mention the overwhelming sense of luxury. It felt like there were gold accents everywhere we looked. (Oh, a quick aside: before exploring the palace interior, you need to leave your bags at the bag check on the left.) After that, we passed beneath several domes in succession, each with a completely different mural overhead. The visual impact was incredible—absolutely breathtaking.

Then we started exploring room after room, and it’s no exaggeration to say that each one was like opening a mystery box—every room was completely different. One room had a bit of a Chinese feel to it. I searched online and found that it did indeed feature Eastern elements. The gist was that European aristocrats were fascinated by Eastern culture, especially when it came to decorative art and design, so this room had been decorated with Eastern motifs. China’s rich cultural heritage really does hold its own.

(The room’s four corners were distinctive too.)

I personally loved this room, so I took a few close-ups with my camera to give you a sense of the intricate craftsmanship we saw there.

Then we carried on with our “mystery box” experience. After walking through it all, I can only say it was unbelievably lavish and breathtaking. No exaggeration: there were several rooms where we couldn’t help letting out a “wow” the moment we stepped inside. Enough talking—see this visual feast for yourselves!

During our visit, we also happened upon a statue of Atlas from ancient Greek mythology—the Titan who carries the heavens on his shoulders. I remember him making a particularly strong impression on me when I read mythological stories as a child. I never imagined I’d get to see an actual statue of him here in the Royal Palace of Madrid. It felt pretty extraordinary.

After exploring the earlier areas, we moved on to the palace treasury. You could say it took aristocratic luxury to the absolute extreme: one glance revealed a dazzling array of rare treasures. Almost all of them were gold-colored, too. Honestly, looking at a whole room full of glittering gold objects, it was hard not to think they were all made of solid gold.

Along the way, we also saw a painting that left quite an impression. After looking up its background, I think it was the famous “Herod’s Massacre of the Innocents.” The story behind it goes roughly like this: when Jesus was newly born, the Three Wise Men from the East came to pay homage to this “new king of the Jews.” When King Herod heard about it, he was so afraid of losing his throne that he ordered the killing of all boys under the age of two in Bethlehem and the surrounding area—what became known as the Massacre of the Innocents in Bethlehem. Honestly, after taking in so many lavish works of art, suddenly learning this historical background felt rather brutal.

Just before we were ready to leave the palace, we reached its central royal chamber. By this point, I felt like my brain had run out of suitable adjectives to describe what was in front of me. Honestly, faced with a setting on this scale, the luxury went beyond anything I could imagine.

After leaving the main palace area, we found a few side rooms nearby. We couldn’t enter them, but we could look inside through the doorways. One had a table that looked very much like a modern pool table. Curious, I asked GPT about it, and after checking, found that it really was a billiard room used by European aristocrats in the 17 century. Honestly, that was quite an eye-opener—I hadn’t realized they’d already been playing billiards hundreds of years ago.

By then, we’d pretty much explored the whole palace. While looking around the first few rooms, I’d noticed how beautiful the chandeliers were in every room, which led to the photos below: a big collection of chandeliers from the Spanish royal palace, hahaha.

To wrap things up, here’s one last photo of the king illuminated by the lights, bringing our visit to the Royal Palace of Madrid to an official close. Looking back on the whole visit, it really was an awe-inspiring experience.

That evening, we bought some vegetables at a grocery store, then headed back to where we were staying. Watching the beautiful sunset brought this awe-inspiring day to a close.

At dinner that evening, we made a point of trying a type of cured sausage sold here—salami. It tasted pretty good, the kind that gets more flavorful the longer you chew. Honestly, you might need to mentally prepare yourself the first time you try it, because it’s coated in a layer of edible mold, and it’s essentially cured raw pork. But once you actually taste it, you find it has a rich, satisfying flavor that gets better as you savor it. It was a little taste of authentic Spanish flavor.