Page 287 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Spain

OLD M ADRID  285

e Monasterio de las The Triumph of the Eucharist, is
Descalzas Reales based on cartoons by Rubens.
The tapestries hang in the cloister
Plaza de las Descalzas 3. Map 4 E2. on Good Friday and Corpus
Tel 91 454 88 00.  Sol, Callao. Christi. Major paintings on show
Open 10am–2pm, 4–6:30pm Tue–Sat, include works by Brueghel the
10am–3pm Sun & public hols. Elder, Titian and Zurbarán.
Closed 1 & 6 Jan, Easter, 1 & 15 May,
9 Nov, 24, 25 & 31 Dec. & 8 (free
Wed & Thu after 4pm for EU residents).
∑ patrimonionacional.es
Madrid’s most notable religious
building has a fine exterior in
red brick and granite, and one
of the few surviving examples
of 16th-century architecture.
Around 1560, Felipe II’s sister,
Doña Juana, decided to convert
One of the many 1930s buildings lining the the original medieval palace
Gran Vía which stood here into a convent
for nuns and women of the royal
zarzuela – a comic opera – that household. Her high rank, and
most madrileño of art forms that of her fellow nuns, accounts
(see p326). Nowadays, the Gran for the massive store of art and
Vía is at the centre of city life wealth of the Descalzas Reales
and, following a restoration (Royal Barefoot Sisters).
programme, has become an The stairway has a fresco of
architectural showpiece. Felipe IV’s family looking down,
The most interesting build- as if from a balcony, and a fine Fray Pedro Machado by Zurbarán
ings are clustered at the Alcalá ceiling by Claudio Coello and his r Real Academia
end, starting with the Corin- pupils. It leads up to a first-floor
thian columns, high-level cloister, ringed with chapels con- de Bellas Artes de
statuary and tiled dome of the tain ing works of art relating to San Fernando
Edificio Metrópolis (see p288). the lives of the former nuns. The
A temple with Art Nouveau main chapel houses Doña Juana’s Calle Alcalá 13. Map 7 A2. Tel 91 524
mosaics on its upper levels crowns tomb. The Sala de Tapices has a 08 64.  Banco de España, Gran Via,
No. 1 Gran Vía. One striking series of tapes tries, one woven Sevilla, Sol. Open 10am–3pm Tue–Sun.
feature of buildings at this end in 1627 for Felipe II’s daughter, Closed some pub hols. & (free Wed).
8 by appt. 7 ∑ realacademia
of the street is colon naded Isabel Clara Eugenia. Another, bellasartessanfernando.com/en
galleries on the upper floors,
imitating medieval Aragonese Famous former students of this
and Catalan archi tecture. arts academy, housed in an 18th-
Another is the fine wrought- century building by Churriguera
iron balconies and carved stone (see p29), include Dalí and
details, such as the gargoyle-like Picasso. Its art gallery’s collection
caryatids at No. 12. This part of includes works such as drawings
the Gran Vía has a couple of by Raphael and Titian. Among
old-world Spanish shops. the old masters are paintings by
On the Red de San Luis, an Rubens and Van Dyck. Spanish
intersection of four major roads, artists from the 16th to the 19th
is the Telefónica build ing. The centuries are well represented,
first skyscraper to be erected in with works by Ribera, Murillo,
the capital, built between 1926 El Greco and Velázquez. One of
and 1929, it caused a sensation. the high lights is Zurbarán’s Fray
Beyond here, the Gran Vía Pedro Machado, typical of the
becomes much more American artist’s paintings of monks.
in character, with cinemas, An entire room is devoted
tourist shops and many cafés. to Goya, a former director of
Opposite Callao metro the academy. On show here are
station, on the corner of the his painting of a relaxed Manuel
Calle Jacometrezo, is another Godoy (see p66), the Burial of the
well-known build ing, the Art Sardine (see p43), the grim
Deco Capitol cinema, built in Decorated chapel, Monasterio de las Madhouse, and a self-portrait
the 1930s. Descalzas Reales painted in 1815.
For hotels and restaurants in this area see pp568–9 and pp591–3

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