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The main palace building in Mannheim, now housing a museum and part of the local university.
Royal Palace of Madrid
Royal Palace of Madrid
Royal Palace of Madrid
We walked from one architectural masterpiece to another. This archway fronted a door into the king's chamber. The king, Peter the cruel, who ruled in 1350 for 16 years, had the palace built along Muslim architectural themes, apparently because he liked them better than the Christian architecture of the day. Regardless of what kind of king he was, he had good taste in palaces.
The walls and ceiling of King Peter's chamber, where he met those wishing an audience with him, were completely decorated and ornate enough to spend hours looking at.
The ceiling of the king's chamber, the inside of a hemisphere, was directly over where Peter sat. It symbolized that the only one above Peter was God himself. These were modest time with modest people.
If you had to wait for the king, which you did, at least he gave you a nice place to sit. I suspect I could have spent and hour there and hardly begun to appreciate all the work that was done in this one area.
Even a simple door had a combination of Muslim and Christian themes, each requiring a great deal of time to read, understand, and appreciate.
Top to bottom, everything was decorated, everything was artistic.
Just one more ceiling, this one early on in the palace. One more chance to gawk.
