Astronomy Madrid

Designed by Juan de Villanueva in 1790, the observatory still houses a magnificent library, a collection of period instruments and an Foucault pendulum, which demonstrates in real time the daily rotation of the Earth. The highlight of the guided tour is undoubtedly the very beautiful reconstitution of the telescope that William Herschel built for the observatory at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, which was unfortunately destroyed in 1808 during the Napoleonic occupation.