Lovely Palacio de Liria in Madrid is located on Princes Street. This is a great building, surrounded by a magnificent garden is the family seat of the Dukes of Alba.

The palace was built by order of Duke Bervikskogo former illegitimate son of King James II and served the Spanish crown. The authors of the project were the architects of Ventura Rodríguez and A. Gilbert. The palace was built in the neoclassical style on the basis of Italian and French palaces. Dense greenery surrounding the palace garden practically does not allow to consider it because of the fence.

Palacio de Liria is the repository of the amazing works of art. Here is the collection of tapestries and a collection of paintings, which have the greatest works of such masters as Titian, Rembrandt, Goya, Velazquez, El Greco, Dürer, Van Dyck and others.

During the Spanish Civil War, the palace suffered greatly, in fact, survived only its facade. Alba family during this time in London. Fortunately, before his departure, they transferred its masterpieces deposited in the Bank of Spain and the British Embassy. Due to the fact that the paintings were kept in metal boxes, the collection was saved. Unfortunately, it was not possible to save a great collection of engravings, which were completely destroyed.

A few years after the war, in 1948, the young Duchess of Alba restored palace by completing the promise made to his father. The interiors of the palace were completely rebuilt according to the new project, and all the works of art distributed in thematic halls - so there are rooms in the palace of the Italian, Flemish, Spanish, Dutch painting.