Palace of Zarzuela

In 1627 Philip IV ordered a hunting pavilion, built in the manner of a small palace, in the Valle de la Zarzuela near Madrid, and it was finished eight years later. The work was given to the architect Juan Gómez de Mora, who set out a sober rectangular building in the Madrid baroque manner, taking his cue from the villas of Andrea Palladio. Gaspar Bandal designed the gardens, and Alonso Carbonell completed the work with slate roofs, porticoed galleries and an Italian garden whose fountains stepped down three terraces, together with a tree nursery and a kitchen garden. The paintings placed in the palace were the work of Simón López and the sculpture that of Bartolomé Zumbigo.

The palace takes its name from the neighbouring arroyo de La Zarzuela, an allusion, possibly, to the zarzas or brambles along part of its course; the palace itself stood among the brambles of the king's hunting grounds. Some hold that the first recitals with music were given here, the counterpart of what would later be spread and elaborated from Italy as opera. The palace theatre was the place of origin of the Spanish genre of musical drama, and the form of entertainment took the name zarzuela because La Zarzuela was where the first performances of it were given. The teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid, opened in 1856, was named for the genre in its turn, and the Zarzuela racecourse, built in the twentieth century, owes its name either to the same stream or to the palace beside it.

By the end of the eighteenth century Antonio Ponz recorded that the paintings which had once filled the interior, by the best artists of their day, had been moved away to other royal palaces; works by Paul de Vos, pieces from the schools of Rubens and Bosch, and flower and still-life paintings were noted as still kept there. Charles IV altered the building to eighteenth-century taste and furnished it with tapestries, porcelain, neoclassical furniture and a collection of clocks, and in his time it served as a seasonal residence during the hunts in the surrounding woods. Alfonso XIII used it as a shooting lodge, and his son Juan de Borbón, count of Barcelona, was a frequent visitor as a child. The palace was seriously damaged during the Civil War.

The palace was rebuilt between 25 March and 12 October 1958 by the architect Diego Méndez, who kept the original shell and the porticoed wall, recreated the seventeenth-century gardens and added an upper floor; the work cost 40 million pesetas. The private residence was on the first floor. A left wing and a right wing were added afterwards, the left as a larger private residence and the right as offices; the addition is dated to 1975 in one account of the palace and to the 1990s in another.

The palace became the home of Juan Carlos de Borbón and Sofía of Greece from their marriage in May 1962. After the death of the dictator Francisco Franco in November 1975, and with the monarchy restored, the King chose not to occupy the Royal Palace of El Pardo, leaving it for visiting heads of state, and designated the Palacio de la Moncloa as the residence of the President of the Government, while the family stayed at Zarzuela. Official business is habitually divided between the two royal houses: ambassadors' credentials are presented and decorations conferred at the Royal Palace of Madrid, while foreign leaders are usually received and Spanish politicians sworn in at Zarzuela. Ministers, the President of the Government and the magistrates of the Constitutional Court take their oath in the palace's Sala de Audiencias, at a table set with a gilded crucifix, a copy of the Spanish Constitution published by the Cortes in 1980 and a Bible of 1791 dedicated to Charles IV, opened at the chapter of the Book of Numbers that treats of vows and oaths.

Work on a second house in the grounds, the Pabellón del Príncipe, began in 1999 under Manuel del Río, head of the architecture and property department of Patrimonio Nacional; the then Prince Felipe opened it on 26 June 2002, a pavilion of 3,150 square metres that cost 4.23 million euros. The Infantas Elena, duchess of Lugo, and Cristina left the palace on their marriages, settling in Madrid and Barcelona, and Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark, the younger sister of Queen Sofía, lived there from 1981, after her mother's death, until her own. The palace belongs to the Spanish state, is administered by Patrimonio Nacional and has been listed as a bien de interés cultural since 1931. Juan Carlos I remained at Zarzuela until August 2020, when he left to live abroad following allegations of financial impropriety, mainly undeclared funds alleged to be held in tax havens. Queen Sofía did not go with him and continues to live at the palace, while Felipe VI has his office there and lives with his family in the Pabellón del Príncipe.