Plaza de Oriente, Madrid

Plaza de Oriente opens out as a monumental square beside Madrid’s Royal Palace, with the Teatro Real completing its opposite boundary. Its shape is rectangular, with a curved end, and Narciso Pascual y Colomer gave the design its definitive form in 1844. King Joseph I drove the project forward and ordered the medieval houses on this site to be demolished.

The gardens frame the monument to Philip IV, the square’s defining artwork. Look at the mounted king and the horse balanced on its hind legs: Pietro Tacca created this remarkable statue in the seventeenth century, and it is identified as the world’s earliest equestrian statue supported in that way. The monument itself was inaugurated on 17 November 1843, with its pedestal, fountains, lions and reliefs added by artists Francisco Elías Vallejo and José Tomás.

Rows of royal statues line the gardens. The collection represents 44 Spanish kings from the medieval period, although the present arrangement places 20 figures in two rows of ten beside the central monument. The Royal Monastery of the Incarnation forms the northern edge, completing a square shaped by palace, theatre, monastery and sculpture.