The Liria Palace is still a home: it is the official residence of the Duke of Alba. Until 2019 getting in was difficult: it could be visited only on Friday mornings, and the waiting list was long. Since September 2019 it has opened every day, and inside you will find Goya, Velázquez, Rubens and a collection of documents by Christopher Columbus.
The opening hours come in slots, and on Mondays the palace opens only in the morning: entry is from 10:00, with last admission at 12:45. From Tuesday to Sunday you can also come back in the afternoon, from 16:00, with last admission at 18:00.
How can a palace that burned in 1936 still have its Goyas?
A palace of the Dukes of Berwick
The palace was not built for the Dukes of Alba. It was commissioned, between 1767 and 1785, by the third Duke of Berwick and Liria, Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart. His grandfather, the Marshal of Berwick, was an illegitimate son of James II Stuart, King of England; he had fought for Philip V in the War of the Spanish Succession, and was rewarded with the title of Duke of Liria, named after a town in the province of Valencia.
The first architect was the Frenchman Guilbert, who gave it the air of a Parisian town house. In the early 1770s he was replaced by Ventura Rodríguez, and the building was finished by Blas Beltrán Rodríguez, Ventura’s cousin. It is neoclassical, and as you approach you will notice that the main façade faces a garden rather than the street.
The Alba name arrived only in 1802. That year Cayetana, the thirteenth Duchess of Alba, the one painted by Goya, died childless, and the title passed to the Berwicks: since then the two houses have been one.
1936
What saved the collection?
Evacuation. In November 1936, during the Civil War, the palace was bombed and burned: only the four façades were left standing. But the main works had already been taken away by the Junta de Incautación, the body set up by the Republic to protect the artistic heritage. The paintings travelled with those of the Prado as far as Geneva; some of the furniture, books and documents were put in safekeeping in various places in Madrid, including the Banco de España and the British embassy. Even so, more than seventy paintings were lost in the fire.
This photograph dates from 1934, two years before the fire: it shows the chapel as it was. Keep it in mind when you see today’s rooms, which have all been rebuilt.
After the war, the seventeenth duke began the reconstruction, to designs by the English architect Edwin Lutyens, the architect of New Delhi; the work was carried out by the Spanish architect Manuel Cabanyes. Seen from above, the rebuilt palace is once again a long pale block among the trees.
The duchess in white
Among the portraits of the dukes, painted over five centuries, the most famous is by Goya: the Duchess of Alba in a white dress, from 1795. In front of the painting you will recognise Cayetana at once, with a red sash at her waist, a red bow in her black hair and a little white dog at her feet; she points at the ground with her right hand.
Among the other portraits is the Grand Duke of Alba, Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, long believed to be by Titian and now attributed to Anthonis Mor; and there are Rubens’s copies of two portraits by Titian. The foundation lists, among the masters in the collection, Velázquez, Murillo, Zurbarán, El Greco and Ribera. Works are sometimes lent to other museums: if there is one you want to see, ask the ticket office before you go.
Columbus’s letters
Why do the Dukes of Alba own autograph documents by Christopher Columbus?
Because of a marriage. The mother of the third Duke of Berwick was Duchess of Veragua and a direct heir of Columbus: that is why the family archive holds the largest group of original autographs by the Admiral. Among the documents there are also the will of Ferdinand the Catholic and the autograph will of Philip II.
The garden
In front of the palace the garden is now English-style, with a central lawn and centuries-old trees. In one corner there is a dog cemetery: the dukes buried their favourites there, each with its own headstone. The garden has a separate guided tour, which in 2026 ran from 14 May to 31 August.
Practical information
Details checked on 30 October 2026 on the official website palaciodeliria.com. Prices and opening hours change: check again before you travel.
Until 31 January 2027 the palace hosts the exhibition «Cayetana: Grande de España», devoted to the eighteenth Duchess of Alba, Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart. In Seville the family has its Andalusian home, the Palacio de las Dueñas, where the duchess died in 2014. In Madrid, for another collection built by a family, there is the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum; for the kings’ collection, the Royal Collections Gallery.
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons: the façade and its detail, by UnDíaPorMadrid, CC0; the view from above, by Luis García (Zaqarbal), CC BY-SA 3.0; the gate, by Zarateman, CC0; the chapel in 1934, from the Biblioteca Virtual del Patrimonio Bibliográfico, CC BY-SA 4.0; Goya’s portrait is a public domain reproduction.
