We analyse the possibilities of elastic matching and effective internal stress relief at the coexistence of polar phases in ferroelectric PbZr1-xTixO3 compositions close to the morphotropic phase boundary. The important role of the polydomain (twinned) monoclinic phase in this stress relief over wide concentration and temperature ranges is discussed. A new link between phase boundaries in the phase diagram, reported by Noheda et al (Noheda B, Cox D E, Shirane G, Guo R, Jones B and Cross L E 2001 Phys. Rev. B 63 014103), and optimal domain volume concentrations, calculated in the present work, is revealed.