How to see the Goya Frescoes in the San Antonio Florida Hermitage (Madrid)

One of the corners that is not usual visit on a tourist trip to Madrid, but that contains a great work of art, Is the Hermitage of San Antonio de la Florida.

In this small hermitage you find some beautiful frescoes painted by Goya, which cover the dome and its vaults.

If you decide visit the Hermitage of San Antonio de la Florida, riding a Madrid, the first thing you will see is its charming location next to the Manzanares river, in front of Bridge of the Queen, and you will be surprised to see that there are two twin hermitages.

Curiosities about the history of the San Antonio de la Florida Hermitage

Precisely the reason why a second hermitage was built over time in 1928 was the purpose of preserving the aforementioned ones from deterioration. fresh from Goya.

This second hermitage began to have the purpose of maintaining religious worship, while the original hermitage was converted into a museum.

But the fact that there are different versions of the Hermitage of San Antonio It is something that has been happening since its most remote origins.

Thus, before the first building was built between 1792 and 1798 hermitage where Goyhe painted the frescoes, there were already two hermitages dedicated to San Antonio de Padua.

The first of these had a design of Churriguera, and was built where the station is now located Prince Pius.

Later, and due to the growth of the city, it was demolished and a new hermitage was built, this time with a design of Sabatini, and located halfway between the first and the current one.

Finally, it was demolished again by order of the king Charles IV, who commissioned the construction of the definitive Hermitage of San Antonio in what was an environment of gardens and palatial buildings called the Quinta Real de la Florida, land that belonged to the crown.

The current Hermitage of San Antonio de la Florida in Madrid It was built in neoclassical style according to the design of the Italian architect Felipe Fontana, presenting a simple Greek front and the characteristic pilasters.

How to visit the San Antonio de la Florida Hermitage and see Goya's frescoes

With the small dimensions typical of a hermitage, when you enter its interior you see a simple Greek cross plan and Corinthian capitals.

But it is in its ceilings, in the dome and the vaults, where its great attraction is found, the aforementioned frescoes painted by Goya.

When you enter the interior of this small hermitage, converted into a museum, from the first moment your gaze is directed towards the ceiling covered in paintings that Goya made in 1798.

At the end of the 19th century, Goya He was a painter at the service of king Charles IV, and the frescoes he painted in the Hermitage of San Antonio It was the first important commission he received after becoming deaf.

In these frescoes you can see various samples of the three stages of the Goya painting.

The main reason for the frescoes painted by Goya you can see it in the dome, the Miracle of Saint Anthony of Padua who, according to belief, resurrected a dead person in Lisbon in the 13th century.

Apart from the figures of the saint and the resurrected one, the rest of the characters painted by Goya They represent the people of the town of Madrid.

All the figures of angels painted by Goya They occupy the lower vaults, when the usual practice until then was for the angels to be painted in the highest part of the building, in the dome.

The Goya frescoes They have had various restorations, the last being very recent, in 2005.

Goya's Pantheon in San Antonio de la Florida

La Hermitage of San Antonio from Florida to Madrid is also the Goya pantheon, because as you will see during your visit, at the foot of the place previously occupied by the high altar The tomb where Goya's remains rest is located.

In this regard, there is the curious fact that when in 1919 it was decided to transfer his remains to Madrid from Bordeaux, where they rested, two bodies were brought, that of Goya and that of his father-in-law and friend. Martín Miguel de Goicoechea.

The reason is that there were doubts about who each body was. But, also, in one of the bodies, the one supposed to be Goya's, the head was missing.

Therefore, both bodies now rest in the pantheon.

Visiting hours Hermitage San Antonio Florida

The Visiting hours of the Hermitage of San Antonio de la Florida They are from Tuesday to Sunday, from 9,30:20 a.m. to XNUMX p.m.

And in summer (from June 15 to September 15), from Tuesday to Friday, from 9,30:14 a.m. to 9,30 p.m., and Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, from 19:XNUMX a.m. to XNUMX p.m.

La entry to the hermitage is Delivery to Italy takes one or two business days.