★★★★★ 5.0
Discover
Hermitage of Saint Anthony of La Florida
June 1798: Goya walks into this chapel at La Florida and transforms history in just sixteen weeks. He fills the dome with saints dancing alongside everyday Madrid people—something radical, never done before. King Carlos IV had laid the first stone six years earlier in 1792. The hidden truth: Goya's body rests beneath these walls, though his head was left behind in exile in France. Those mirrors strategically placed around the dome? They're there so you can study every brushstroke without craning your neck. A clever detail almost nobody notices.
Did You Know?
- : The Hermitage of Saint Anthony of La Florida is the final resting place of the legendary Spanish painter Francisco Goya, whose remains were transferred here in 1919—though his head is missing, believed to have been left behind in Bordeaux, France, making his burial a poignant and mysterious chapter in art history.
- Goya’s frescoes inside the hermitage are so delicate and celebrated that in 1928, an identical chapel was built right next to the original so worship could continue without risking damage to the priceless artwork, allowing the original to be preserved as a museum.
- Visitors can use strategically placed mirrors to admire the intricate details of Goya’s dome fresco, which depicts the miracle of Saint Anthony of Padua in Lisbon, with everyday Madrileños like *majos* and *majas* mingling among the religious figures—a rare blend of the divine and the ordinary in religious art.