What happened to the Hall of Realms? A half century of utopia

In 1998, coinciding with Fernando Checa’s term as director of the Prado Museum— who was appointed upon the Popular Party’s arrival to power—the official project to restore the ancient Hall of Realms of the Buen Retiro Palace, which then housed the Army Museum, was presented. The call for a historicist recovery of the Hall of Realms was shared by great Spanish historians from Elías Tormo, member of the first Board of Trustees of the Prado, to Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez, director during the PSOE’s mandate. But Checa’s resignation cut the project short. MThe reconstruction of this emblematic urban space so closely linked to Spain’s history continues to be a utopia which has inspired many temporary exhibitions, and highlights current Director Miguel Zugaza’s desire to renew museographical discourses; a desire that has led to activism 2.0 in platforms such as Change.org. Undoubtedly, everything points to the importance of rethinking cultural policies in the last decades in Spain.