The Glass Palace

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Madrid is home to some wonderful examples of cast-iron architecture. One of the most striking is the Glass Palace which is located in El Retiro Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was originally built in 1887 as a greenhouse to showcase flora and fauna as part of an exhibition on the Philippines, then a Spanish colony. Today it is owned by the Reina Sofía Museum which uses it all year round as a venue for hosting temporary exhibitions.

It was designed in the late 19^th century by architect Ricardo Velázquez Bosco. He modelled it on Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace which had been erected in Hyde Park (London) back in 1851. The structure made of glass plates and cast iron sits on a brick base decorated with ceramic tiles by Daniel Zuloaga (the renowned Spanish ceramist whose tiles can also be found on the façade of the nearby Velázquez Palace and covering the dome of the Church-Convent of Santa Teresa).

The palace, which was restored in 1975, is surrounded by horse chestnuts. It stands next to a small pond filled with ducks and geese, just a stone’s throw from the Velázquez Palace, which is also used by the Reina Sofía Museum for temporary exhibitions.