Palace of the Councils, Baroque palace in central Madrid, Spain

The Palace of the Councils, also called the Palace of the Duke of Uceda, is a 17th-century brick palace on Calle Mayor at the corner of Calle Bailén. Its two facades meet at a chamfered corner, with reddish-brown brick framed by grey stone quoins and window surrounds. It has a ground floor of tall windows, two upper floors of regular windows and a top floor of small square windows under a shallow tiled roof. Stone coats of arms of the Sandoval family, flanked by lions, are set on the upper walls.

Cristóbal Gómez de Sandoval-Rojas, first Duke of Uceda and valido of Philip III, commissioned the palace; Francisco de Mora designed it, Juan Gómez de Mora directed the works and Captain Alonso Turrillo executed them between 1613 and 1625. After the duke's fall, Mariana of Austria, mother of Charles II, lived there and died in 1696. In 1717 Philip V bought it to house the offices of the Real Alcázar, and from 1858 the Council of State was installed there.

The palace served as the hub where royal councils governed important matters of state, making it a center of power in the capital. Its function shaped how the surrounding streets developed and how people moved through this part of the city.

The palace stands on Calle Mayor at its corner with Calle Bailén, in the Madrid de los Austrias quarter, facing the site of the old church of Santa María de la Almudena. The brick and stone facades, the corner chamfer and the coats of arms of the Sandoval family are best seen from the opposite pavement. It is a working government building, so visits are limited to the exterior.

The stone coats of arms on the upper walls, the Sandoval arms flanked by rampant lions, were judged too ostentatious for a nobleman when the palace was new. Mariana of Austria, mother of Charles II, spent her last days here and died in the building on the night of 16 May 1696.