Descalzas Reales Monastery, located close to the Plaza del Sol, was founded in 1564 and is still active today. It is an oasis of calm filled with art treasures, including elaborate floor-to-ceiling frescoes and paintings by Rubens and Titian.
Housed in the former palace of Charles V (Carlos I) and Isabel of Portugal, their widowed daughter Juana founded a convent of barefoot Franciscan nuns here in the mid-16th century.