Casita del Príncipe

The House of the Prince is an eighteenth-century building located in El Escorial, Spain. It was designed by the neoclassical architect Juan de Villanueva as the private residence of the heir to the Spanish throne Charles, Prince of Asturias. It was constructed in the 1770s.The word casita is the diminutive of the Spanish word for "house". Such buildings gave their royal occupants the opportunity to escape some of the formalities of court life. The Petit Trianon at Versailles offers a French example of the phenomenon.The building and its gardens are set in parkland.InteriorThe artwork inside includes a Sala de Porcelana on the upper floor. This room features jasperware plaques in neoclassical style. Reminiscent of the work of the English Wedgwood company, the plaques were made in Madrid in the 1790s by the Real Fábrica del Buen Retiro.ConservationThe building was declared Bien de Interés Cultural in 1992.