The design by A. Ruiz de Salces

East elevation on Calle Serrano from the design by A. Ruiz de Salces, 1885. AGA, Fondo Construcciones Civiles

In 1884 Antonio Ruiz de Salces was commissioned to continue the palace and drew up a new proposal that respected the essence of Jareño’s design but accommodated a new change in the specifications: now the building not only had to house the National Library, National Archaeological Museum and Museum of Painting and Contemporary Sculpture but the National Historical Archive and the Secretariat and Library of the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts as well.