The Palace of the Senate stands in Spanish Navy Square in central Madrid and houses the Senate of Spain, the upper house of the Cortes Generales. The building has Herrerian and Neoclassical features. Francisco de Montalbán was the original architect. Aníbal Álvarez Bouquel and Emilio Rodríguez Ayuso led a 19th-century renovation.
It was built in the 16th century and first housed a school run by the Order of Saint Augustine, known as the Doña María de Aragón School. Its church contained several El Greco paintings, which are now in the Prado Museum.
The building hosted the Cortes of Cádiz in 1814 and from 1820 to 1823. The Chamber of Peers moved in during 1835. After democracy returned in 1977, the Senate reoccupied the palace, and it helped draft the Constitution of 1978.
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