La Torre de la Parada: hunting, art and royalty
Source: El Pardo
Reviewed by the Corsini Hunts team, with over 45 years of experience in Spanish hunting tradition. La Flamenca Estate preserves a sporting heritage rooted in the country's most emblematic history, alive today in every driven shoot.
Last updated: May 2026
There are places where hunting becomes far more than a day in the field. It becomes culture, memory and beauty. In Spain, few places express that bond as powerfully as La Torre de la Parada, the former royal hunting lodge located in Monte de El Pardo, just outside Madrid and close to the Royal Palace of El Pardo.
It was created as a place of rest during the hunting days of the Spanish court. A royal retreat, far from the noise of power, where the silence of the woods, the dogs, the horses and the waiting formed part of a deeply Spanish ritual. In the seventeenth century, King Philip IV transformed it into one of the most fascinating artistic projects of his reign, commissioning an extraordinary decorative cycle involving masters such as Rubens and Velázquez. The Prado Museum preserves and documents the importance of this remarkable ensemble, including Rubens' mythological series created to decorate the lodge.
This place reminds us of something essential: in Spain, hunting has never belonged only to the countryside. It has also belonged to art, conversation, hospitality, rural nobility and a respectful way of looking at nature.
Source: Museo del Prado
La Torre de la Parada: a king's hunting lodge
Philip IV, a passionate hunter, found in El Pardo the perfect setting for his sporting days. Monte de El Pardo was —and remains— one of the historic landscapes most closely linked to Spanish royalty. The lodge was used as a place to pause: somewhere to rest, eat, gather and allow the day to breathe.
Between 1635 and 1640, the building became much more than a hunting pavilion. It became a small artistic universe in the middle of the Spanish countryside. Rubens was commissioned to create dozens of mythological paintings inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses, while other Flemish artists worked on animal and hunting scenes. Velázquez also contributed to the project, strengthening the unique bridge between Spanish hunting and European painting.
A building born for hunting days became one of the most refined expressions of Spanish Baroque culture.
Hunting in Spain: a living tradition
Centuries later, hunting in Spain still preserves that mixture of emotion, skill and tradition that once fascinated kings, artists and travellers. Spain is one of Europe's great hunting destinations for a reason. Hunting supports rural life, conservation, hospitality, tourism and culture. According to Fundación Artemisan's study, hunting in Spain generated more than €10.19 billion in GDP impact and helped support 199,000 jobs in 2023. The same study notes that 25.4% of the income generated by professional hunting organisers came from foreign hunters, confirming the international appeal of Spanish hunting.
For the international hunter, coming to Spain is not simply travelling to shoot. It is entering a country where hunting is tied to landscape, art, gastronomy and a form of hospitality lived with elegance, calm and authenticity.
La Flamenca: where a hunting day becomes a memory
At Corsini Hunts, we believe that a great hunting day must have soul. And at La Flamenca, every day seems designed to remain in memory.
The morning begins with the golden light of the Spanish countryside, when the world is still quiet and everything is yet to happen. Then come the pegs, the dogs, the red flash of the partridge, the pure thrill of the shot and that intense concentration known only to those who have truly lived a day in the field. But what makes La Flamenca so special does not end outdoors.
La Flamenca has something difficult to explain and easy to remember: a blend of home, tradition, elegance and joy. It is the place where the day is told again around the table; where every drive becomes a story, every guest finds a glass, and every hunter feels part of something older than himself.
The cuisine speaks the same language as the countryside: La Flamenca salad with pickled partridge, beans with partridge, red beans with quail, stewed partridge with mushrooms and baby carrots, noble meats, traditional stews, fine wines and long, unhurried desserts. La Flamenca's own menu celebrates the bond between wine and partridge, evoking wine as part of the ritual of driven partridge days, accompanying the silence after the hunt and the celebration of a fine shot by the fire.
That is the magic of La Flamenca: the hunt does not end when the shooting stops. It continues in the conversation, by the fire, in the wine, at the table and in the feeling of having lived something unmistakably Spanish.
The red-legged partridge: the heart of the Spanish field
Few species represent Spanish hunting better than the red-legged partridge. Wild, fast, noble and beautiful, it demands focus, timing and respect. Its flight is part of the emotional memory of many European and American hunters who dream of Spain as a sporting destination.
The management of estates dedicated to commercial red-legged partridge shooting can also play a relevant role in conservation. A report on Spanish partridge estates notes that, when these lands include well-preserved habitat, food, water and reduced human disturbance, they may support greater diversity of birds and mammals, as well as the presence of emblematic species. The study describes these estates as true "islands of conservation."
That is one of the great truths of well-managed hunting: when it is carried out with respect, knowledge and passion, the countryside thrives.
Why choose Corsini Hunts?
This lodge was a place where Spanish royalty hunted, rested and surrounded itself with beauty. La Flamenca, in another language and another age, preserves that same idea: hunting as a complete experience, where the field meets the art of hospitality.
At Corsini Hunts, we do not simply organise hunting days. We create days with character. Days in which the international hunter discovers an intimate, elegant and authentic Spain: the Spain of the red-legged partridge, the beautifully laid table, the shared wine, the countryside at dawn and the conversation at dusk.
Because hunting in Spain is much more than taking a game. It is understanding a tradition. It feels like a landscape. It is entering, even for a single day, a story that comes from far away. And at La Flamenca, that story is lived with enthusiasm, beauty and the unmistakable signature of Corsini Hunts.
