When you visit Palacio de Liria in Madrid, you're stepping into what locals call "the little brother of the Royal Palace." Built around 1770, this neoclassical mansion on Princesa Street has been the Alba family's Madrid residence for over two centuries, and it shows in every carefully preserved detail.

What struck me most was the sheer scale of the place. With 200 rooms spread across 3,500 square meters, it's officially Madrid's largest private residence. The building itself has an unusual rectangular layout, quite different from the typical Spanish palaces with their interior courtyards. You notice this immediately as you walk through the surprisingly long corridors.

The art collection here rivals many national museums. The portrait gallery alone tells the story of Spanish nobility through the brushstrokes of masters like Titian, Goya, and Sorolla. Goya's portrait of the Duchess Cayetana in white dress hangs alongside Titian's portrait of the Great Duke of Alba – seeing these works in their original domestic setting feels completely different from viewing them in a museum.

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The palace has quite a dramatic history too. During the Spanish Civil War, everything except the facades was destroyed. The reconstruction was a massive undertaking led by the 17th Duke of Alba and his daughter Cayetana, with British architect Edwin Lutyens designing the new interiors in the 1940s. Walking through today, you'd never guess at this turbulent past.

Since opening to the public in 2019, the palace has drawn over 107,000 visitors in 2024 alone. The guided tours run morning and afternoon, taking you through the state rooms and private apartments where you can see Italian masterpieces by Francesco Furini and Andrea Vaccaro, plus works by Spanish masters.

The private gardens deserve mention too – they're the only privately owned green spaces that appear on many city maps of Madrid. Standing in these gardens, surrounded by one of the city's most important art collections, you get a genuine sense of how Madrid's aristocracy lived. It's one of those places where history feels immediate and personal rather than distant.