The Sabatini Courtyard Garden
Francesco Sabatini; garden replanted for the museum (Sabatini 1721 to 1797) · Eighteenth century courtyard; garden laid out 1980s
Step through one of the glass doors from the ground floor corridor and the noise of the museum drops away. The courtyard at the heart of the Sabatini building is a square of gravel paths, low box hedges, tall cypresses and lawns, enclosed on all four sides by the grey stone of the old hospital with its rows of windows. Modern sculptures stand among the plants: Miró's black bronze Lunar Bird, a mobile by Alexander Calder that turns in the breeze, and iron figures by Julio González. Madrid's sky is very blue above and the walls keep the wind out, so even in winter it is warm at noon.
The courtyard was the exercise yard of the General Hospital, where patients were taken for air; the cloister like corridors around it were wards. When the building became a museum the yard was planted as a formal garden in the Spanish and Italian tradition of clipped hedges and gravel, and it now serves as an open air sculpture gallery. Look at the proportions: Sabatini's courtyard is enormous, and the cypresses only reach a third of the way up the walls. The Calder, called Carmen, is a stabile mobile of about 1974, one of the last works he made.
The garden is also the museum's best free space. It can be entered from the ground floor without a ticket at most times, and the cafe tables spill out into it in good weather. Sit here after Guernica and let the day settle. In summer the museum sometimes uses it for evening concerts and film screenings, and the fountain and the sound of gravel underfoot make it feel far from the Ronda de Atocha traffic outside.
Did You Know? Alexander Calder's mobile in the garden is called Carmen and was one of the last large works he completed before his death in 1976.
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