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The largest court-textile exhibition transforms the cultural programme by the Royal Palace
Madrid adds one of the summer's major cultural exhibitions beside the Royal Palace. The Royal Collections Gallery is hosting Weaving Courtly Life. Fabrics and Embroideries from the Royal Collections, an exhibition bringing together more than 200 pieces and open from 11 June to 12 October.
The exhibition is considered the largest project devoted to court textiles ever held in Spain. A large part of the works had never been shown to the public, something unusual for a type of heritage that is especially fragile, difficult to preserve and normally kept away from museums' most visible rooms.
The tour offers an entry into the material life of the court through fabrics, embroidery, lace, trimmings, hangings, curtains, ornaments and objects linked to spaces of representation and palace intimacy. It is not only about seeing old fabrics, but understanding how power, taste and daily life were constructed through interiors.
The exhibition is organised into five thematic sections and does not follow a purely chronological order. This structure helps us read textiles as living pieces: objects that dressed halls, bedrooms, ceremonies, books, beds or bodies, and spoke both of luxury and of the trades responsible for creating and maintaining them.
Among the most distinctive pieces is Queen Berenguela's pillow, dating from before 1246 and considered one of the oldest textile works preserved in the Royal Collections. Pieces linked to different dynasties also appear, from the Habsburgs to the Bourbons, with names such as María Luisa de Parma and Victoria Eugenia.
The exhibition has required significant research and restoration work. Many pieces have been prepared specifically so that they can be displayed in suitable conditions, with particular attention to sensitive materials such as silks, embroidery, lace and historical fabrics that cannot be exhibited permanently.
The location reinforces the appeal of the plan. The Gallery of Royal Collections is located beside the Royal Palace and Almudena Cathedral, in an area that already concentrates one of the strongest cultural routes in central Madrid. This exhibition adds a less usual perspective: history seen through the details, the stitches and the objects that shaped court life.
Weaving Court Life broadens the programme beyond painting, sculpture and famous names. It is an opportunity to discover a delicate and little-seen heritage that is fundamental to understanding how palaces were inhabited, how power was represented and how luxury was also woven thread by thread.