Royal Barge Museum

In the 18th century the Tagus was the stage for court festivities. Ferdinand VI and Barbara of Braganza sailed in a flotilla of gilded boats, the so-called Tagus Squadron, while the singer Farinelli directed music and spectacles from the water. The painter Antonio Joli captured it around 1752.

That world survives in this museum: some forty pieces, six of them boats, the rest models, masts and objects from the kings’ love of sailing. The present brick building went up between 1963 and 1966 beside the landing stage in the Prince’s Garden.

What to see

• Charles II’s gondola (1683), the oldest boat, ordered in Naples for the Buen Retiro pond.
• Charles IV’s royal barge, built in the early 19th century, with gilded carvings and figureheads.
• Other barges and pleasure boats from the 18th and 19th centuries, plus models and masts.

It’s a short visit, quite unlike anything else in Aranjuez. For children, it’s often what they remember most.