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INTRODUCTION ECHOES OF THE ROYAL COURT IN THE HISTORIC URBAN LANDSCAPE OF VALLADOLID Javier Pérez Gil Instituto Universitario de Urbanística University of Valladolid
The Royal Palace is probably the most significant and transcendent historical building in Valladolid. Its architecture recalls the memory of the greatest period of the city, when it hosted the seat of the Hispanic monarchy between 1601 and 1606. The sector of the courtly or courteous city was modelled upon this building, which undoubtedly forms one of the most valuable views of the urban landscape of Valladolid, both for containing some of its main monuments, and for capturing the effect of some of the most significant processes in its history and continuing to be an important part of it. Even before its constitution as a royal house, already in the 16th century Zapata de Chaves stated in his Cosas singulares de España that “the best street: the Coso in Çaragoça, or the Carrerample in Barcelona, or the Rúa Nova in Lisbon, or the Corredera in Valladolid ”(Zapata, 1859). However, this transcendence is now faded among Valladolid’s inhabitants due to the loss of integrity of some of its attributes –the old palace complex has been reduced to just a part from its core– and also due to the shortage of dissemination. Despite the remarkable advances in recent decades research, which have substantially improved both the knowledge of the historical process of the palace and - and especially - the revision of its interpretations, and also despite the work of public opening, conservation and enhancement carried out by the IV General Sub-inspection of the Army, the recognition that the building deserves from its citizens has not yet been achieved. An obvious and daily evidence of this is the orientation of the gazes of neighbours and tourists in the Plaza de San Pablo towards the magnificent facade of the Dominican temple or towards the corner window of the Ribadavia palace, always turning their backs on the Royal Palace and, in
