From the wooden and leather litter in which Carlos V traveled through his empire when gout prevented him from riding a horse, to the Mercedes-Benz jeep that Hitler gave Francisco Franco in 1940, in the midst of World War II, before their meeting in Hendaye. A car reserved exclusively for members of the Nazi government. In between, and above all, excellent carriages and even sleighs. It’s In Motion. Vehicles and carriages of National Heritage, the first temporary exhibition of the Royal Collections Gallery, the new museum in Madrid that will open to the public after 25 years of project on the 29th with four days of open doors until Sunday, July 2.
Undoubtedly the first temporary exhibition of the Gallery -the main exhibition, so awaited, will be revealed next week- will cause people to talk. To conclude with two impressive and enormous Mercedes-Benz linked to the dictatorship – in addition to the SUV there is a 770 acquired by the Ministry of the Army in 1945 for 60,000 marks, although apparently it had already been offered as a gift by Hitler previously, and both they had a rather marginal use – transports linked to the Republic or to Alfonso XIII, so fond of the automobile world – did not appear in the exhibition – he was involved in the development of the Hispano-Suiza and commissioned the Elizalde workshops in Barcelona – but of which National Heritage does not keep vehicles.
Some Mercedes of which in the presentation press conference it has been possible to speak without mentioning Franco but that undoubtedly fit well into that privilege and that scenery of power that became the highlight of the show, the glittering carriages of Spanish kings and nobles. Some transports that were born from what was initially basically a car, recalls Isabel Rodríguez, curator of the sample.
“The exhibition -he underlines- intends to explain in a very visual way how it went from a very basic wooden structure that was later enriched with fabrics to a rolling throne. How it became an exceptionally rich piece that at the same time was distancing the monarch of the subjects, of the citizens. We must not ignore the importance of gold, gold leaf has always been very expensive and it is also a symbol exclusively of monarchs and little else. The nobles also used carriages of great importance and there were numerous provisions that wanted to limit the use of carriages by the nobility. It was a symbol of prestige, of power, and it was very difficult to stop it, there was an entire industry around it. Then, already in the 19th century, the differences between what they used the kings, the nobles and the bourgeoisie gradually became more nuanced”.
In the exhibition, for which the Museo del Prado has lent seven paintings showing the uses of carriages, and which even includes Queen Elizabeth II’s children’s carriage and two wooden sleds, one in the shape of a dragon, possibly a gift From Tsar Alexander II to Alfonso XII, it is remembered that it was between the 16th and 17th centuries when the carriage was developed as a representative vehicle at the service of monarchs. In Spain cars began to be important with Felipe II, who established the court in Madrid but moved to the royal sites of Aranjuez, El Escorial or El Pardo. And it would be in the Baroque courts where the carriage lived its greatest splendor.
In the exhibition, Rodríguez points out, the golden Berlina that belonged to the Marquises of Alcántara, from the mid-18th century, and two carriages made with great sumptuousness in Paris at the end of that century for the kings Carlos IV and María Luisa de Parma, stand out. the Shell Car and the Figure Car. In the 19th century, after the war of independence, there were hardly any carriages left in the royal stables – Carlos IV took many with him when he left for Bayonne, and Fernando VII commissioned carriages from master coachbuilders who had settled in Madrid, where an industry of carriages developed. high quality.
The exhibition exhibits carriages built in Madrid such as the Mahogany Car or the Landó de Bronces, “extremely exquisite, gilded bronzes, boxes covered with wooden marquetry, mahogany, embroidered silk interiors”, remarks the curator, who recalls that these carriages were part of a protocol of great significance not only for the court but for the citizens themselves.
