Kathy H.
Yelp
Most breathtaking ever. It's a little home, really. Fully decorated with the "luxury" kind of art, basically you enter as the guest of honour in a wealthy Spanish home. This collection is from the Marquis of Cerralbo, Enrique de Aguilera y Gamboa. You receive a detailed guidebook when you walk in. There is a Spanish PDF on their website if you want to see it. But at the museum, they have a printed English version (which was what I read).
The museum has 28 "areas." I'm going to walk you through some examples:
The entrance hall with extremely large doors is used to allow guests to enter with their carriages. With enough space for exit as well. The guests get off inside the home and their drivers take the carriages out. It is very important* to have large, beautiful art so guests can see how grand/rich/luxury this house is.
*every area is "very important" apparently because the host needs to show off his riches in every single inch of his home.
Every inch of the wall is decorated! It's like... the family finds a spot on the ceiling, they will find something to fit there. Every piece of art is HUGE too.
There are three floors if I remember correctly... You follow the guidebook and you walk from room to room. For example the men's "meeting" room is to chat business. But before you reach it, let's show off some armoury.
There is a "world's travels" room full of artifacts the owner found interesting, perhaps collected from his business trips.
Then there's the main diner which is absolutely gorgeous. After dining, the host and guests will walk to the brightly lid room where they can feel relaxed and chat with each other. If the guests find they are tired from the chatting, they can enter the next room. Where they can admire even more art. Each room has art. To think "the next room" has even MORE art than the previous room. It's crazy!!
Such was how the wealthy Spanish lived. Almost every room has a mini "pre-room" so guests can refresh in the mirrors before entering. It's very important that the guests are comfortable and the hosts can show off their wealth.
The library is drop-dead impressive. These books date back crazy long ago. It's like his internet. The master of the home was interested in every single topic. He collected coins in the library too.
And I haven't even talked about the very last room. Extremely beautiful. Unfortunately they asked me to put my stuff in the locker, so I thought they didn't want photographs. I saw some sneaky people take photos though. I am SO jealous.