Madrid: the jewels of the Spanish crown finally reunited

The Museo de Colecciones Reales, intended to house the Spanish crown jewels, was inaugurated in Madrid on Thursday 29 June. Works by Caravaggio, Velasquez and Goya are thus brought together on the same picture rails. This new museum dedicated to the royal collections, located near the Almudena Palace and Cathedral, is opposite the institutions of the capital's "art triangle": the Prado, Reina Sofia and Thyssen- Bornemisza.

The building cost 170 million euros and exhibits works of art amassed by Spain's Habsburg and Bourbon dynasties over five centuries. Within this royal collection, we find the model used by Bernini for his Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, installed in Piazza Navona in Rome. Until now, the more than 650 pieces - tapestries, sculptures, armor and jewelry - were kept in palaces and monasteries scattered across Spain.

A third of the exhibits - a fraction of the collection - will continue to be loaned to other institutions, officials said. The eight-storey building, made of white concrete, granite, oak wood and cast aluminum, also houses a piece of the 9th-century Madrid wall, built when the city was ruled by rulers Muslims.

“The museum was born from the ambition to be a key cultural and tourist place in Madrid, in Spain and even in Europe,” Ana de la Cueva, director of national heritage, the public body that manages, told the press. the royal collection. She added that authorities hoped the museum would persuade tourists to extend their stay in the city by at least one day, which would boost revenue.