Western Europe's largest palace: 3,418 rooms of marble, gold and silk — the solemn grand staircase, the throne hall, and the Gasparini room studied for its ornament; kings no longer live here but state ceremony does. Online booking jumps queues and early morning calms the halls; the monthly solemn guard change is full royal theater; Plaza de Oriente and the Almudena adjoin, and Sabatini gardens frame the palace's finest sunset.