 In its first few decades, the hotel hosted such luminaries as Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso, Marie Curie, Mata Hari, Josephine Baker, Buster Keaton, Richard Strauss, Federico García Lorca, Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí.During the Spanish Civil War from 1936-9, the Palace became a military hospital.The famous glass-domed lounge was used as an operating theatre, due to the abundant natural light.