Royal monastery of La Encarnación

This monastery stands in the Plaza de la Encarnación, built in the 17th century by order of Margaret of Austria, wife of King Philip III. The building is the work of the architects Juan Gómez de Mora and Fray Alberto de la Madre de Dios. In the 18th century, after a fire, the church underwent a major renovation. The architect Ventura Rodríguez gave the temple a neoclassical style and the interior was decorated by the best artists of the time. Some of the monastery's halls are open to the public, including the Kings' Hall, the choir, the cloister and the sacristy, where works by José de Ribera, Antonio de Pereda, Lucas Jordán and Gregorio Fernández can be seen. The Reliquary Room, which houses a collection of 700 pieces made of bronze, coral, ivory and fine woods from Italy, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands, is the church's most important and popular. Among its relics, there is the ampoule containing the blood of Saint Pantaleon, which undergoes a curious liquefaction phenomenon every July 27.