The Almudaina Palace in Palma de Mallorca is reopening its doors, and the figure that catches the eye most is not any restored room - it's the bill. The complete refurbishment cost 2,573,000 euros, money that mostly comes from European funding. When someone else is paying, the renovation always goes more smoothly.

Almudaina is the official residence of King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia while they stay on Mallorca, but let's not fool ourselves - no one actually rests here. The royal family sleeps eight kilometres away, in the Marivent palace, where there is peace. Almudaina is for receptions, for photos, for the official version. Everyone has a house for the guests and a house for living; the royals just have a bigger budget for that split.

The renovated palace will open free of charge to visitors on July 29, 30 and 31. The new tour goes in chronological order - from the Roman roots and the Muslim period of Madina Mayurqa, through the Kingdom of Mallorca, all the way to the Throne Hall arranged in the style of Alfonso XIII. For the first time, rooms will open that have never been accessible to the public, among them the Queen's Palace on the upper floor.

There, visitors will see a marble lion from the tenth century, a golden griffin from the twelfth, and a tympanum with the Coronation of the Virgin from the end of the thirteenth. History piled up across centuries, displayed now as if newly discovered - even though every stone there has stood for centuries, waiting for someone with enough budget to replace the plaques.

The project, they say, will cut energy consumption by at least 30 percent. Sounds nice on paper. But when an institution boasts that it uses less electricity after having spent two and a half million euros, it's worth asking: for whom is the renovation really - for the visitor who will pay a ticket, or for the receptions the royal family is planning in the coming weeks?