The royal site of the province of Segovia, ordered to be built by Felipe V, restores a fountain that had not been working for 80 years and opens the old servants‘ attic rooms as novelties for the tricentennial. 

Luis Vallejo, the general manager of the Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso in Segovia, Spain, describes the palace and its gardens as being dominated by water. The site, which receives about 200,000 visitors each year, recently celebrated its 300th anniversary. It was King Philip V who, captivated by the landscape while hunting in 1717, decided to build a palace there with one of the best gardens and hydraulic systems of the time. The gardens, designed by French architect René Carlier, and the palace, built by Spanish architect Teodoro Ardemans, are now maintained by the National Heritage in Segovia. Vallejo highlights the playful nature of the statues at La Granja, contrasting them with the more formal ones at Versailles, and notes the purity of the water in the palace’s fountains. The palace was expanded after Philip V’s brief abdication in 1724 and the subsequent death of his son and successor, Louis I. The original hydraulic system is still 96% intact, with the water used in the fountains stored in a reservoir called The Sea. Among the notable features of the palace is the restored Andromeda fountain, which had been out of operation for over 80 years. The palace also houses a collection of 20,000 pieces, including paintings, porcelain, 18th-century consoles, clocks, and a remarkable collection of tapestries.