Replica of the Portal of the Casa de la Cadena in Navalcarnero, Spain

Navalcarnero may be a small town southwest of Madrid, but its streets are steeped in history. Founded in the 15th century, it became an important stop between Madrid and Toledo and is now particularly celebrated for its wine production. The town's vineyards form part of the Denomination of Origin Vinos de Madrid, and its winemaking tradition has long been one of Navalcarnero's defining features. Yet among its wine cellars and historic streets is a doorway that recalls a rather more aristocratic chapter in the town's past. On October 7, 1649, King Philip IV of Spain married his niece, the Archduchess Mariana of Austria, in Navalcarnero. The couple received their nuptial blessing in two adjoining houses belonging to Miguel González Ollero, a local priest and lawyer, which had been temporarily converted into a palace for the royal occasion. The newlyweds then spent two nights there, effectively turning the modest residence into their royal honeymoon suite. A royal coat of arms was placed above the entrance, and years later the building acquired the name Casa de la Cadena, or “House of the Chain,” after a ceremonial chain was installed in front of the doorway, attached to enormous stone bollards. The house was eventually demolished and the chain disappeared, but the story survived. The portal visible today is therefore not the original doorway, but an exact reconstruction created in 1998 under the direction of sculptor Feliciano Hernández. Hernández based it on a 19th-century engraving, probably dating from 1857, recreating the appearance of the long-vanished house with remarkable fidelity. One particularly intriguing detail is genuine, however: the royal coat of arms above the portal was donated to the town in 1988 by the Rey Benito family, who had astonishingly been using it as a doorstep since 1940. Hernández restored it and incorporated it into the reconstructed façade, while the lower coat of arms is a modern reproduction by the same sculptor. The replica was inaugurated on October 10, 1998, and nearby, on Calle de Felipe IV—formerly Calle de la Cadena—the original commemorative inscriptions celebrating the royal wedding can still be seen. Thus, Navalcarnero's royal honeymoon house has vanished, but its doorway has been resurrected: part historical evidence, part reconstruction, and part wonderfully tangible reminder that, once upon a time, a Spanish king and his bride spent their wedding nights here.

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