24 December
On Christmas Eve, on 24 December 1734, a terrible fire broke out and destroyed the Alcazar, the royal fortress seat of the Spanish monarchy. Under the rubble magnificent works disappeared forever: over 500 paintings by artists such as Leonardo, Holbein, Raphael, Ribera, El Greco, of which often only the description remains.
Built in the ninth century as a watchtower, the Alcazar had been constantly expanded and modernized until that unfortunate winter night.
It seems that the fire started from the room of the court painter Jan Ranc, where the fireplace had remained lit, while celebrations were elsewhere. The flames soon devoured everything: beds, wardrobes, chests, and all their contents, and soon cornices and ceilings as well. The building began to collapse.
In the palace were kept more than 2000 paintings collected with tenacity since the time of Isabella I of Castile and increased over the centuries by the Spanish dynasty. Philip II and his son had added Titian, Tintoretto, Ribera, Dürer, Leonardo, Brueghel. While thanks to the refined taste of Felipe IV, numerous works by Velázquez and Rubens and their contemporaries had been added.
No one was able to quell the fury of the fire. The chronicles narrate that five chariots with seven horses and mules each loaded with gold, silver, jewels and coins. For fear of the raids, the people of Madrid were not allowed to intervene to extinguish it.
Many of the paintings that are now the highlights of the Prado were saved, such as las Meninas by Velasquez, which seems to have been thrown out of a window, or Adam and Eve by Durer, and also the Mona Lisa by the workshop of Leonardo da Vinci which recently made headlines because its preparatory drawing is very similar to that of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. Fundamental pieces to understand the history of art, which that fire nevertheless changed forever.
