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Plaza de Oriente Review

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Plaza de Oriente

Address: Plaza de Oriente, Palacio, Madrid | Map It

Category: Squares
Location: Old Madrid

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Fodor's Review:

The stately plaza in front of the Royal Palace is surrounded by massive stone statues of Spanish monarchs. These sculptures were meant to be mounted on the railing on top of the palace, but Queen Isabel of Farnesio, one of the first royals to live in the palace, had them removed because she was afraid their enormous weight would bring the roof down. (Well, that's what she said:according to palace insiders, the queen wanted the statues removed because her own likeness had not been placed front and center.) A Velázquez painting of King Felipe IV is the inspiration for the statue in the plaza's center. It's the first equestrian bronze ever cast with a rearing horse. The sculptor, Italian artist Pietro de Tacca, enlisted Galileo's help in configuring the statue's weight so it wouldn't tip over. For most madrileños, the Plaza de Oriente is forever linked with Francisco Franco. The generalísimo liked to speak from the roof of the Royal Palace to his followers as they crammed into the plaza below. Each year in November, on the anniversary of Franco's death, the plaza draws a decreasing number of old-timers.

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