Only three days a year, of the gardens of the offer their maximum splendor when launched. This Friday, as every July 25 (feast of Santiago Apostle), is one of them along with May 30 (San Fernando) and August 25 (San Luis). Some 5,000 people have attended the lighting of the jungle, horse race, the basket, eight streets, frogs, fame and the sculptural set of Diana’s bathrooms, all of them based on classical mythology. This year, the show has been somewhat diminished, since the new waterfall source is in the process of restoration.
“King Felipe V wanted to demonstrate to the European Courts that he was a very powerful king,” explains Luis Vallejo, general manager of the Palacio de la Granja de San Ildefonso, moments after the ignition of the fame of fame. “Imagine that today, three centuries later, these forces and those heights continue to surprise us. Imagine what a person of three centuries could think, with the same jets, the same forces.”
Felipe V devised the Palacio de la Granja, built between 1721 and 1724, as a place of retirement and enjoyment, to which he added the French -inspired gardens, with the Palace of Versailles always as a reference. The gardens were a key part of the set and the fountains, with their water games, a distinctive element for a resting place, but also a power center.
Around half past four in the afternoon, many visitors already access the Palace gardens to attend the event while Emmanuel, 51 -year -old Venezuelan, draws the source of Neptune. Emmanuel considers a luxury to be able to admire the fountains to run, since it only passes three times a year. More than 20 years have passed since the last time he saw them. Martín, 42, has already come 10 times to tour the sources at its peak. “We like it a lot to be hydraulic mechanics that have no engines. A heritage that we love coming to live and enjoy,” he says.
The waiting for the visitors ends at half past five in the afternoon, when the flag with which the ignition begins is stirred. The fountain of the jungle begins to run and thousands of visitors gather to see the water sprout. “This is a trap,” says a group of women when wet from La Fuente del Canastillo, one of the most colorful for their water games. Their edges have 32 oblique suppliers whose pressure manages to launch the water outside the ornamental assembly.
From there, attendees are moving to contemplate, one by one, how the water of the monuments. One of the most anticipated moments comes with the ignition of the fame source, whose stream reaches 47 meters high and the accuracy of fall is uncertain. “Wet where the wind goes,” shouts a national heritage worker to warn the naive visitors. While some attendees flee from this stream, others seek their fall. Irene, Madrid’s 33rd, ends up soaked. He has fun “like a girl.”
“Just as Felipe V saw, we are seeing them today,” says the person in charge of the enclosure. This year there is only one opportunity to see the sources in all its hydraulic apogee: it will be on August 25, patron of the Royal Site.
