The Iron and Glass Interior
Ricardo Velázquez Bosco, architect; Alberto de Palacio, engineer; ironwork by the Bernardo Asins foundry (Velázquez Bosco 1843 to 1923) · 1887
Step inside and look up. The whole building is a cage of thin iron ribs that rise from the floor, curve over your head and meet in the dome, with nothing between them but glass. There are no walls in the ordinary sense and no ceiling; the trees, the sky and the lake are all visible through the structure, and the floor is patterned with moving shadows of the ironwork. The sensation is of being both indoors and out, which was exactly what a nineteenth century greenhouse was meant to give, and it is what makes the building so attractive to artists today.
The iron was a modern material in eighteen eighties Madrid, and the engineer Alberto de Palacio, who later designed the transporter bridge at Bilbao, worked out the structure with the architect. Look at the way the columns are grouped in pairs and threes at the corners of the cross and at how the roof trusses are cut into open scrollwork to save weight. The glazing bars are set close together so that the panes are small and easily replaced, and the lower part of the walls is brick, hidden on the outside by the tile frieze, to give the iron a firm base. A gallery of iron once carried plants at the upper level; today the interior is left open.
Buildings like this were the ancestors of modern glass architecture, and the Palacio de Cristal has become a symbol of the moment when Spain looked outward toward the engineering of London and Paris. It has survived a civil war, decades of neglect and the harsh Madrid climate, which stresses the joints between iron and glass every summer and winter. A memorable detail is the sound: on a windy day the glass panes tick and hum in their frames, and rain on the roof turns the pavilion into a drum.
Did You Know? Engineer Alberto de Palacio, who worked on the structure, went on to design the Vizcaya Bridge at Bilbao, the world's first transporter bridge and now a World Heritage Site.
Unlock the Full Guide
Read every room and listen to every work in all museums with premium.