The Palace of the Senate is the home of the

Senate of Spain The Senate ( es, Senado) is the upper house of the Cortes Generales, which along with the Congress of Deputies – the lower chamber – comprises the Parliament of the Kingdom of Spain. The Senate meets in the Palace of the Senate in Madrid. T ...

, the

upper house An upper house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house.''Bicameralism'' (1997) by George Tsebelis The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restric ...

of the

Cortes Generales The Cortes Generales (; en, Spanish Parliament, lit=General Courts) are the bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house), and the Senate (the upper house). The Congress of Deputies m ...

, the national parliament of

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

. It is located in the Spanish Navy Square, in the center of the

City of Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

History

The building was built in the 16th century and was the home of a Saint Augustine Order school called Incarnation School or Doña María de Aragón School. The school was one of the most outstanding institutions of the capital, and its church contained several masterpieces of

El Greco Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos ( el, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco ("The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El ...

, today in the

Prado Museum The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from th ...

. In 1814 and between 1820 and 1823 the palace was the home of the

Cortes of Cádiz The Cortes of Cádiz was a revival of the traditional '' cortes'' (Spanish parliament), which as an institution had not functioned for many years, but it met as a single body, rather than divided into estates as with previous ones. The Genera ...

, the first official parliament of Spain. With the approval of the Royal Statute of 1834, the

was established as a bicameral parliament with the Chamber of Peers as the upper house. The Chambers of Peers moved to the palace in 1835 and with many name and powers changes, this palace continued serving as the home of the upper house of the Cortes until 1923. During the

dictatorship of Primo de Rivera General Miguel Primo de Rivera's dictatorship over Spain began with a coup on 13 September 1923 and ended with his resignation on 28 January 1930. It took place during the wider reign of King Alfonso XIII. In establishing his dictatorship, ...

(1923–1930), the Cortes were dissolved and was created the National Consultative Assembly which had its home in the

Palacio de las Cortes Palacio de las Cortes is a building in Madrid where the Spanish Congress of Deputies meets. It is located on the Calle Zorrilla and the Carrera de San Jerónimo, near the Paseo del Prado. It was built by Narciso Pascual Colomer from 1843 to 185 ...

. With the arrival of the Second Republic, the unicameral parliament established its home at the Palacio de las Cortes and the constitutional debates were held at the

Palacio de Cristal del Retiro The Palacio de Cristal ("Glass Palace") is a conservatory located in the Buen Retiro Park in Madrid, Spain. The Palacio de Cristal, in the shape of a Greek cross, is made almost entirely of glass set in an iron framework on a brick base, which ...

. During the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, the palace was the home of the National Council of the Movement, a pseudo Senate controlled by Franco. With the return of democracy in 1977, the Senate was restored in its original home and, along with the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Ma ...

, wrote the democratic Constitution of 1978.

References

{{Authority control Government buildings completed in 1850 Legislative buildings in Spain Herrerian architecture Neoclassical architecture in Madrid Palaces in Madrid Buildings and structures in Palacio neighborhood, Madrid