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The Bourbons expanded the extensive gardens and palace complex in Aranjuez on numerous occasions, adapting them to the needs of the court. In the eastern part of the park Charles IV had a pleasure palace built at a place where, in 1792, he had come across a modest farmhouse while out hunting. The building, the Casa del Labrador, is among the most beautiful works of Neoclassicism in Spain. In the hands of Isidro González Velázquez, who transformed designs prepared by Juan de Villanueva, the resulting structure was anything but a simple hut, becoming instead a Roman villa built to the most exacting standards.
The interior displays an interesting arrangement of space: at the front is a rotunda in which the lay brothers would gather for their devotions, while the rectangular section at the back was reserved for the monks of the Order of Nuestra Señora de le Esperanza. A common altar both connected and separated these two zones.
The photo shows a view into the statue gallery.
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