Plaza de Oriente

Before any open space existed in front of the Royal Palace, a whole neighbourhood was packed here, with the Franciscan convent of San Gil, the Casa del Tesoro where the Crown’s artists lived, and the Teatro de los Caños del Peral. Texeira’s map portrays it before the wrecking bar fell. The wrecking bar came with Joseph Bonaparte, who between 1809 and 1811 razed ten blocks, thirteen streets and two convents to clear the palace’s eastern flank. The definitive plan was signed by Narciso Pascual y Colomer in 1844: a rectangular square with the equestrian statue of Philip IV at its centre. That sculpture holds a technical feat: Pietro Tacca cast it around 1640 from a portrait by Velázquez, and it is the first in the world where the horse balances on its hind legs; to achieve it, Tacca consulted Galileo on the distribution of weight. The twenty statues of kings escorting the gardens belonged to a larger series meant to crown the Royal Palace. The great renovation of 1994-1997 buried Bailén street and brought to light the remains of an 11th-century Islamic watchtower, now visible beneath the car park.