"There is a place in Madrid where time stopped" Cerralbo Museum.
There is an aristocratic jewel in Madrid that is the keeper of more than 100-years of history. The former home of the Marquis de Cerralbo, it has been visited by people from all over the world, who come intrigued by the opportunity to dip a toe into the lives of the Spanish aristocracy of the late nineteenth century.
The Cerralbo Museum remains exactly the same as when the Marquis lived here. Filled with artefacts and family heirlooms, he donated the house to the city on his death in 1922, and today, following a meticulous restoration in the first decade of the 21st century, it is one of the only museums in the Spanish capital that still showcases the original decor of the time.
A national treasure it tells a fascinating history through its gilded chambers and corridors, artworks by some of the country’s great masters and fabulous antiques that made it the most lavish interior of its time. The art works date from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries and include pieces by El Greco, Tintoretto and Zurbarán among others. It also has an extraordinary collection of weapons and armour, as well as portraits of all of the former owners of the house, one of the most complete private libraries in the land, and a monetary collection consisting of more than 25,000 pieces.
Occupying a space alongside the university and a hospital it was one of the city’s most important addresses, but the literary evenings and poetry recitals that were de rigueur during the Marquis’ time, were eventually replaced by its being a silent witness of the start of the Spanish Civil war.
We invite you to step back in time and lose yourself in this marvellous monument to Madrid past.
