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The Casa del Labrador is a neoclassical palace in
A
In 1993 the building was listed on the Spanish heritage register as a ''
Aranjuez
Aranjuez () is a city and municipality of Spain, part of the Community of Madrid.
Located in the southern end of the region, the main urban nucleus lies on the left bank of Tagus, a bit upstream the discharge of the Jarama. , the municipality h ...
, Spain. The name means "house of the farm labourer", and was borrowed from an earlier building on the site, although the new building was intended for royal use. It was designed to complement the Royal Palace
This is a list of royal palaces, sorted by continent.
Africa
* Abdin Palace, Cairo
* Al-Gawhara Palace, Cairo
* Koubbeh Palace, Cairo
* Tahra Palace, Cairo
* Menelik Palace
* Jubilee Palace
* Guenete Leul Palace
* Imperial Palace- Massa ...
, providing a place for the royal family to spend the day without some of the customary restrictions of court life.
Architecture
The initial design was by the royal architect,Juan de Villanueva
Juan de Villanueva (September 15, 1739 in Madrid – August 22, 1811) was a Spanish architect. Alongside Ventura Rodríguez, Villanueva is the best known architect of Spanish Neoclassicism.
Biography
His father was the sculptor Juan de Villa ...
for King Charles IV.
A cartouche
In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the fea ...
on the facade gives the date as 1803.
The work was completed by Isidro González Velázquez.
Decorations
The French designer Jean-Démosthène Dugourc, who entered Charles IV's service after the French Revolution broke out, made an important contribution to the interior decorations. The marble floors incorporate someRoman mosaic
A Roman mosaic is a mosaic made during the Roman period, throughout the Roman Republic and later Empire. Mosaics were used in a variety of private and public buildings, on both floors and walls, though they competed with cheaper frescos for the ...
s found in Merida.
There are murals by Zacarías González Velázquez.
Access and conservation
The Casa del Labrador is set in a park called the Jardín del Príncipe bordering theRiver Tagus
The Tagus ( ; es, Tajo ; pt, Tejo ; see below) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally west with two main south-westward sections, to e ...
.
Access to the gardens surrounding the Casa del Labrador is free, but there is a charge to visit the house itself which is in the care of the heritage agency Patrimonio Nacional
Patrimonio Nacional ( en, National Heritage) is a Spanish autonomous agency, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Presidency, that administers the sites owned by the Spanish State and used by the Monarch and the Spanish Royal Fami ...
. The Jardín del Príncipe is also the home of the Faluas Reales Museum, a modern building containing pleasure barge
A pleasure barge is a flat-bottomed, slow-moving boat used for leisure. It is contrasted with a standard barge, which is used to transport freight. Many places where canals or rivers play a prominent role have developed pleasure barges for conduc ...
s from the royal collection
The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world.
Spread among 13 occupied and historic royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King Charles III and overseen by the ...
.
In 1993 the building was listed on the Spanish heritage register as a ''Bien de Interés Cultural
A Bien de Interés Cultural is a category of the heritage register in Spain. The term is also used in Venezuela and other Spanish-speaking countries.
The term literally means a "good of cultural interest" ("goods" in the economic sense) and inclu ...
'' under the name "Casita del Labrador".
Also the gardens in which it is set are protected as a ''Jardín Histórico''.
Since 2001 Aranjuez has been conserved as part of a World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
, the Aranjuez Cultural Landscape.
Related properties
There are similar properties near other royal palaces in the Madrid area. *Casita del Príncipe (El Escorial)
The Casita del Príncipe () is an eighteenth-century building located in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain. It was designed by the neoclassical architect Juan de Villanueva for the private use of the heir to the Spanish throne Charles, Prince of A ...
This building was also designed for Charles IV, but before he became king.
References
{{reflist Bien de Interés Cultural landmarks in the Community of Madrid Houses completed in 1803 Neoclassical architecture in the Community of Madrid Buildings and structures in Aranjuez Palaces in the Community of Madrid Royal residences in Spain