An Egyptian Temple? What's that Doing in Madrid?

Madrid is probably the most metropolitan of all of the cities that I a saw in Spain. It is the third largest city in Europe and mixes modern elements with the past quite nicely. I only had one and a half days in this mega place and therefore spent most of the time hitting up two of the three museums in the Golden Triangle of Art. The Triangle includes the Prado Museum, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofìa, and the Thyssen-Boremisza Museum. I hit up the former two on my visit.

The Prado Museum is considered the Spanish National Museum and is home to the largest collection of Spanish art anywhere. It is based on the Spanish Royal Collection. Most of the art comes from the 12th through 19th centuries and features a lot of religious motifs and themes. The pictures are magnificent, but not really my style.

The Reina Sofìa is Spain’s National Museum of 20th century art and contains more than just religious art. This though, can probably be attributed to the fact that styles changed from that type by the 1900s. This museum is gigantic, containing four floors of art from many great Spanish artists, most notably Picasso, Mìro, and Dalì.

Like the Louvre in Paris, The Reina Sofìa also contains a particular masterpiece that everyone who visits flocks to see; Picasso’s painting Guernica. This piece was commissioned by the Spanish Republican Government to represent the bombing of the town of Guernica in Basque Country by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of the Spanish Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil war. Guernica shows the tragedies of war and the suffering that it inflicts upon individuals, especially innocents.

Both the Prado and Reina Sofia offer free evening admission to their respective museums during the last two hours of operation every night. I took advantage of this fact and used it to view both museums; running from one to the next and dragging a poor fellow hostel-mate along for the ride. She thought that I was crazy because I went on a 3.5 hour walking tour, then hiked around the city for 4 hours – part of that time trying to located the MAD (Madrid Archaeological Museum) – before heading to the Prado, and then the Reina Sofia. I definitely tried to fit as much as possible into my time in the city.

I did eventually find the MAD and in less than 4 hours. I was originally sent in the wrong direction and it took a mile of walking to realize I was headed to the Madrid Anthropology Museum so I can see where the direction giver could have gotten confused. The MAD though, when I finally found it, was closed for renovations. This made the second archaeological museum in the country that I tried to get to that was under renovations. Apparently Spain does not want me to see what they have in their collections.

Since I couldn’t go to the MAD, I went to the National Library Museum, which was actually really cool. There was an exhibit about book binding and about the invention of writing and other bibliophile things. So in essence, great for the nerds like me, probably not that interesting the rest of the populace.

In addition to the Library Museum, I wandered through the Parque del Buen Retiro (Park of Pleasant Retreat). The park is the largest in Madrid and used to belong to the Spanish Monarchy before being turned over to the public in the late 19th century. The park contains a rose garden, museums, remains of the Buen Retiro Palace, famous sculptures, and even a small lake for boating. It’s huge, beautiful, and a good place to get run over by joggers in the evening if you’re not watching where you’re walking.

For the few hours that I had on my last day in Madrid and in Spain as a whole, I ran around to see the Palacio Real de Madrid (the Royal Palace of Madrid), which is still the official home of the King of Spain, Juan Carlos I, although the King and his family choose to live in another, more modest palace on the outskirts of the city. The Palacio Real is huge and the rooms are filled with so much swag, that I’ve finally figured out what rich people spend all their money on.

The Palace has been added to, changed, and expanded upon by each successive ruler and as a result there is so much money in the Palace. There are rooms that have walls covered in two inch thick gold and silver threaded embroidery, rooms with priceless frescos covering their entire ceilings, gold accented chairs and tables, sculptures, and thick woven carpets. The place is beautiful and filled with many great and priceless gems and works of art, but so ostentatious that I don’t know how anyone could really live there and feel at home. I’ve come to realize that many palaces are similar though because this is how someone shows their wealth, by having these types of goods in their homes.

The really awesome thing about King Juan Carlos I is that he was voted by the Spanish people as the greatest Spanish citizen ever. Juan Carlos was named the King by the previous dictator, General Francisco Franco, who terrorized the country for 38 years and thought that Juan Carlos would continue his reign. Juan Carlos surprised everyone when he turned the country into a parliamentary democracy and gave Spain back to the people. He has since created peace in a country that has been torn apart by turmoil for centuries.

One last thing that I saw in Spain was a little bit of Egypt. In 1960 there was the Great Dam of Aswan project in the Nile Valley of Egypt that threatened to flood hundreds of temples and monuments. There was a worldwide plea sent out to help remove and relocate as many of these endangered temples as possible. Spain responded to the call and as a result was gifted with the Temple of Debod, which was rescued and rebuilt in a park in the middle of Madrid.

Here ends my “Great Spanish Adventure” and now on to London.