The Royal Palace in Madrid was AMAZING (this will be a common adjective throughout my Spain posts). It was grandiose, opulent, ornate, detailed, extravagant, palatial and very much fitting what a wealthy royal palace should be.
The outer courtyard is surrounded by three sides with the palace and porticos. And on the fourth side by the Almudena Cathedral, so that the palace and cathedral face each other.
The courtyard is lit by several ornate gold lamp posts spread throughout. The courtyard itself is large to the point that you feel small in comparison. The detail in the architecture on the facade was impressive and barely hinted at what you would see when you got inside.
They would only allow photos in the entryway, but the interior...oh, my! Gorgeous!!! All the rooms, walls, ceiling, furniture, paintings, chandeliers are all intricately detailed and masterfully done.
(Pictures of inside the palace are from the internet)
Every room, and I mean EVERY, had huge murals on the ceiling spanning almost the entire length and width of the room. And they are not small rooms. Most the rooms were a good 15-20 feet tall and easily 500-1,000+ square feet. Many of the rooms have very large portraits or paintings filling up wall space. The walls all have "wallpaper" which took me 3-4 rooms to figure out that it was fabric. And then another room or two to realize that the furniture against the walls is upholstered in the very same fabric (see the sitting room picture). The Dining Room was impressive as all the chairs, plates, silverware, glasses, etc. were all perfectly lined up down the entire table. While we were there one of the chairs was pushed back about six inches. Since everything else was so perfect it was kind of driving us nuts.
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