The Palacio de Cristal

The Museo Reina Sofía’s two galleries in the Retiro Park, the Palacio de Velázquez and Palacio de Cristal, were designed by Ricardo Velázquez Bosco (Burgos, 1843 — Madrid, 1923) in the late nineteenth century as exhibition spaces within the context of the universal exhibitions, maintaining that purpose ever since.

The Palacio de Cristal in Madrid is a 19th-century glass-and-iron pavilion located in El Retiro Park. Built in 1887 for the Philippine Exposition, it was inspired by London’s Crystal Palace and is considered a masterpiece of Spanish iron architecture.

The Palacio de Cristal was built in just five months on account of prefabrication, similar to the London building. It is noteworthy for its iron-and-glass structure and its spacious, open interior. It is arranged on a type of Greek-cross plan, from which one of the arms was replaced with the entrance portico. The crossing is rounded off with an eye-catching glass dome with a height of twenty-four metres, rising above the other parts of the roofing which are structured via cloister vaults, also made of glass. The building sits on a stone and brick base, adorned with ceramic friezes designed by the Zuloaga brothers.

Today it functions as an exhibition space for contemporary art, managed by the Museo Reina Sofía, where temporary installations interact with its light-filled, transparent structure.