Palacio de Cristal

Historia

The Palacio de Cristal is a glass and metal structure located in Madrid's Buen Retiro Park. It was built in 1887 to exhibit flora and fauna from the Philippines, then a Spanish colonial possession. The architect was Ricardo Velázquez Bosco.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 is decorated with ceramics. Its cupola makes the structure over 22 metres high. When it was erected, glass and iron construction on a large scale was already to be seen in Madrid at Delicias station, the work of a French architect. However the curved architecture of the Palacio de Cristal is more comparable to the techniques pioneered by the British architects Joseph Paxton and Decimus Burton .The cast-iron frame was manufactured in Bilbao. The structure was designed in a way that would allow it to be re-erected on another site . However, the building has remained on the original site, next to a lake, and has been restored to its original appearance. It is no longer used as a greenhouse, and is currently used for art exhibits.

"El Palacio de Cristal es una de las dos sedes expositivas del Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía en el Parque de El Retiro de Madrid. El edificio, planificado por el arquitecto Ricardo Velázquez Bosco, alberga desde 1990 proyectos e instalaciones específicas de artistas contemporáneos, destacando los realizados por Doris Salcedo, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Charles Ray o Hassan Khan, entre otros."