Calle Alonso Carbonell

Alonso Carbonel was born around 1583 and died in Madrid in 1660. He began as a sculptor and building supervisor, and rose to oversee the Crown’s works. Under the protection of the Count-Duke of Olivares he received his great commission in the 1630s: the Buen Retiro palace, the pleasure complex of Philip IV beside the Jerónimos meadow. Carbonel designed and directed it. Of that city of gardens, ponds and ballrooms, the Casón and the Salón de Reinos survive today; the rest vanished with time and wars. In 1648 he was named chief master of the royal works, the highest post an architect of his day could aspire to. His surname appears as Carbonel and as Carbonell; the street sign kept the double-l spelling.