Royal Chapel of St. Anthony of La Florida

The Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida is a small neoclassical chapel beside the Manzanares river in northwestern Madrid. Its plain shell is famous not for itself but for the cupola frescoes Francisco de Goya painted here in just a few months in 1798, on commission from King Charles IV. Goya boldly transposed the traditional miracle of Saint Anthony of Padua into contemporary Madrid: along a painted balustrade he packs majas, beggars and street loiterers, while the saint raises a dead man to clear his murdered father's name. Since 1919 the painter himself has rested under his own ceiling, his sarcophagus set directly below the vault. A twin chapel built next door handles parish services, leaving the original as a pure museum space.