Plaza Mayor

Related person

Juan de Villanueva (designer)

Date

1590 (Casa de la Panaderia built);1617 (Plaza first built);1790 (last reconstruction)

Location

Europe->Spain->Madrid->Madrid

Description

At the center of the square is a bronze statue of King Philips III, designed by Giovanni de Bologna and his apprentice Pietro Tacca in 1616. The main building in the square, Casa de la Panaderia (Baker's Guild), was completed around 1590, before the square was laid out. Its current design with symmetrical towers dates from 1790. The murals on the facade were added in 1992. During the middle ages the site was a market place outside the city walls. In the 1560s, King Philip II asked Juan de Herrera, architect of the Escorial, to turn the market place into a real square. It was finished in 1617 by Juan Gomez de la Mora. The Plaza Mayor has been the center of festivities, bull fights, royal coronations and executions. Today it is still used for public celebrations. Fires destroyed all the buildings around the Plaza Mayor three times in history. This image shows the plaza's last reconstruction in 1790 designed by Juan de Villanueva. Keywords: Spain, outdoor spaces, commercial structures, statues.

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