First of all - ease of construction,
seriousness in general;
nobility without arrogance,
grandeur without ostentation...
From King Philip's instructions to the architect of Toledo

How to get there

many Italian and Spanish painters. There are even more Bosch and his students here than in the Prado.

Unlike the Prado, where all the inscriptions accompanying the paintings are in Spanish, in Escorial a stand with information is attached to each hall.

At some point, the paintings end and following the signs we go out to the famous “Hall of Battles”, or, as it is also called, “Hall of Halberds”.

“...I took four steps and found myself in a wide gallery: its ceiling and walls were decorated with frescoes depicting battle scenes, and the only furniture was a desk with an inkstand on it and an armchair. Nine windows overlooking the courtyard provided enough light for me to see a painting hanging on the far wall depicting the battle of Christian knights of old with the Moors, and all the details of weapons and harness were painted in the smallest detail. Back then, when I first found myself in the so-called “Gallery of Battles,” I could not imagine to what extent these paintings, glorifying the past triumphs of Spain - the resounding victories of Iguruela, Saint Quentin and Tercera - as well as the rest of the palace, would become are familiar and familiar to me.”

In addition to the gallery of Battles, where we looked at the canvas for at least half an hour, you can also hang out in the map room, looking at maps of the then known world, on which, for example, there is no France yet, but there are Flanders and Burgundy. Yes, Russia is also on some maps.

The hall where portraits of the Habsburgs hang is also nice - even if you don’t know that these are all entirely representatives of the same family, this is immediately noticeable: the signature bulging eyes and protruding lower lip - numerous related marriages did not benefit the descendants. In the reception hall, the doors made of seventeen varieties of wood, presented to the Spanish king Maximilian of Austria in 1567, attract attention.

Unique work - that's why they are protected by armor-piercing glass. From the bedroom of Philip II and the adjacent rooms there are very beautiful views of the Escorial gardens.

“And the gardens, truly striking the imagination, formed into outlandish figures, in bizarre labyrinths they went around a dozen fountains where water babbled. Protected from the gusts of the north wind by the façade of the monastery palace itself, along the walls of which jasmine and rose hips climbed on trellises, they went in charming terraces to the southern wing, revealing to the view a pond where ducks and swans swam. From the south and west, mountains approached in greenish-gray-blue masses, and in the east, far away, all the way to Madrid, stretched vast pastures and royal forests.”

It is often written that the king’s bedroom, where he died, is striking in its asceticism. Well, I don’t know how many castles and palaces I’ve visited in my life; everywhere the private chambers of nobles and kings were much more modest than the state rooms, glittering with gold, paintings, marble or something else. The bedroom is like a bedroom, frankly speaking, not a cell. But straight from it the king could go straight to the church, and when he was no longer able to get out of bed, the bed was moved to the window through which the monarch could attend all services.

In the map room there is also a solar line - a metal strip on the parquet floor that goes to the window, and at the end of it there is a coat of arms and the letter F. This is a special device: once in the wall of the room there was a special hole through which the sun penetrated into the room, At noon the sun was exactly on this line, and thus the clocks in the palace were checked. The letter F stands for King Ferdinand VI, under whom this thing was made.

Pantheon of Kings (Pantheon de los Reyes)

The tomb of the kings of Spain, starting with Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, looks like 26 gilded marble-jasper sarcophagi, placed in 4 rows. It was built exactly under the altar of the basilica.

Only Philip V, who is buried in Segovia, Ferdinand VI, whose grave is in Madrid, and Amadeo of Savoy, who found peace in Turin, were not buried here. The last to be buried here was King Alfonso XIII. Next to the kings lie the wives who became the mothers of the kings. Other wives are buried in the pantheon of princes (infantes). The exception is the only queen since Philip II - Isabella II, who is buried with her husband Francis Asis de Bourbon, the prince consort who became the father of the king; the second exception is Queen Isabella de Bourbon, who did not become the king's mother, but was buried here because her son, the heir to the throne, died much later than her.

“Our queen was beautiful. And a French girl. She was the daughter of the great Henry IV, twenty-three years old, white skin, and a dimple on her chin. Although the greatness of her majesty was tempered by natural intelligence and subtlety, everyone would immediately say that she was born to reign: this foreigner sat on the Spanish throne as naturally and comfortably as her relative Anna of Austria, sister of Philip the Fourth and wife of Louis the Thirteenth, sat on the throne French When the inexorable course of events led to a fight between a decrepit Spanish lion and a young Gallic wolf - it was decided who would be the ruler of Europe - both queens, brought up in the strictest concepts of duty and honor, determined by blue blood, without hesitation or hesitation supported their august husbands, and They perceived the interests of the new homelands as their own. So the harsh times that were not slow in coming gave rise to a curious paradox: we, the Spaniards, ruled by a Frenchwoman, fought with the French, ruled by a Spanish woman. Damn it, what unexpected twists politics and war create.”

Having read in advance that the father of the current king, Don Juan de Borbón, who abdicated the throne in favor of his son, was buried here with his wife, Dona Maria (Doña María de las Mercedes), I searched for a long time and unsuccessfully for his tomb, but in vain. Only after delving into the sources on this issue, it became clear that he seemed to be buried in the pantheon, but at the same time not yet in it itself: the adjacent room to the pantheon is a room called in Spanish pudridero, or in ours, “decomposition room” (no matter how creepy it sounds): there, in special lead urns, the remains of the last deceased king and his wife are stored for 50 years; it is believed that after this period the bodies completely decompose and then they can be moved to the ceremonial tombs . There are 2 such “rooms of decomposition” - for kings and for the pantheon of princes. Only monks of the monastery, which still operates in Escorial, have access to them.

Don Juan and his wife will be placed in the pantheon of kings, although in fact they were never king and queen - due to the revolution in Spain, the Second Republic and the expulsion of Alfonso XIII from Spain. However, the current king decided to go against tradition and bury his father among the kings, and the Spanish people supported him - it was already clear to everyone that de jure Don Juan was still the king of Spain, although he renounced the throne. The third urn in the "room of decomposition" is the ashes of Victoria Eugenie von Battenberg, mother of don Juan and grandmother of the current king, wife of the exiled king Alfonso XIII. Although she, strictly speaking, never became the mother of a king, she will also be buried in the pantheon of kings - as the mother of Don Juan, recognized as a king. It is for these three that the three remaining empty tombs in the royal pantheon are intended. The question of where the living members of the royal family will be buried still remains open. Apparently, the Spaniards, who visited the pantheon at the same time as us, were discussing this issue - very loudly and disrespectfully.

Next, tourists are offered to visit the so-called Pantheon of the Infants. Not only the children of kings are buried there, but also the very wives whose children did not become kings. An example where the queen was the mother of the heir and was buried in the royal pantheon, but in the end her son did not become king, is discussed above - they decided not to touch the ashes of Isabella de Bourbon. I wonder if the queen died and her son suddenly became king, because all the other heirs also died from various misfortunes, would they be reburied?

There are many more tombs in this pantheon than in the royal pantheon, which is understandable - there were many queens, the king’s mother was one (for example, Ferdinand VII, judging by the tombs, had 3 wives, and 2 of them are buried in the pantheon of infantes, nearby), yes and infant mortality was high in those days. Perhaps most memorable is the huge cake-shaped marble mausoleum for princes and princesses who died before adulthood.

Involuntarily we remembered the tomb of the Habsburgs in Vienna in the Kapuzinerskirche, where in the dungeon, where your steps echo loudly, elaborate and dusty tureen tombs stand sadly. There you feel that all this is the past, history, and in the tomb of Escorial you somehow feel that there will still be burials here, and this makes it a little creepy.

Basilica of San Lorenzo el Real

In the Cathedral of El Escorial you feel so stunned
so broken, so prone to melancholy
and suppressed by an unbending force,
that prayer seems completely useless.

Théophile Gautier

The Basilica of San Lorenzo el Real does not have the shape of a Latin cross, as was originally intended, but the shape of a Greek one - where all sides of the cross are equal in length. The dome of the basilica was made in the image and likeness of the dome of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome (Juan Bautista de Toledo was a student of Michelangelo), but if San Pietro as a whole is a triumph of the Renaissance, then the basilica, created by order of the stern king, is stern, ascetic, majestic. Only the space behind the altar is richly decorated, a retablo in Spanish, 28 meters high: gilding, three-tiered painting, bronze sculptures by Leone Leoni. Note the kneeling statues of Charles V, his son Philip II and their families in prayer, also by Leoni. It was precisely this splendor that the king could observe directly from his chambers, without getting up from his bed. By the way, according to the king’s idea, the paintings were to be done by Michelangelo and Titian, but both masters were already over 80 by that time, and Michelangelo died in 1564, a year after the construction of the palace began, and Titian excused himself with poor health and refused to come. Therefore, the paintings on the ceiling and behind the altar were done by less venerable European masters.
http://www.wga.hu/art/c/coello/sagradaf.jpg

In addition to secular art, the basilica and monastery are decorated with church treasures, namely about 7.5 thousand relics in 570 reliquaries, made by both Juan de Herrera himself and his assistant Juan de Arfe Villafañe. “...1515 crayfish and arks stood there, they contained 10 entire skeletons belonging to saints and martyrs, 144 skulls, 366 tibia and radius bones, 1427 individual fingers.” Lion Feuchtwanger

From the basilica you can go to the so-called “Courtyard of the Evangelists” (Patio de los Evangelistas), decorated with sculptural images of the evangelists.

Library

As a refreshment for those visiting the palace, there is the palace library, second only to the Vatican. However, first you pay attention to the bright painting of the ceiling and end walls, which was done by Master Tibaldi and his daughter. Allegorical images of sciences and arts symbolize rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music and grammar; the end walls are dedicated to theology and philosophy.

Along the walls there are large glass cabinets where unique books are stored - from Arabic manuscripts of the 5th century and the collection of the Moroccan Sultan Zidan Abu Maali (1603-1627) to works on cartography, history, medicine, and church literature published in the Middle Ages. The library is said to contain approx. 40 thousand books and approx. 3 thousand manuscripts. You will, of course, notice that the books stand with their spines facing the wall - this is how the decorations of the bindings were taken care of in a unique way. I wonder how they looked for the right book back then - pulling everything out of the pages? Even if we assume that librarians had catalogs and descriptions of what was where, this process was labor-intensive and cumbersome. However, one can assume that the kings did not read, but only collected books, then everything becomes simpler. At one time, Pope Gregory XIII issued a bull, where he wrote that anyone who stole a book from here would be automatically excommunicated from the church. In the center of the room there are globes and astronomical instruments - it’s true that one of the kings dabbled in studying the starry sky, or they were moved from classrooms where the infantes were taught various sciences.

After leaving the palace, we went out to a sun-filled square called lonja, where children studying at the school at the local monastery were actively having fun. If you stand facing the entrance to the school and the monastery, then on the right side there will be an excellent view of El Escorial.

This view of the work of his hands is also admired by the statue of King Philip II in the Jardin de los Frailes, where you can see the monks strolling. Our goal was to find the famous “Philip’s chair,” where the king oversaw the construction of the palace.

Philip's chair

Opposite the entrance to the palace, where the ticket office is located, in the depths of the city blocks there is a travel agency. We took a map of the city, although we were interested in something else – how to get to the Chair. The lady at the travel agency was surprised by the tourists’ question, quickly understood what was required of her, and began quickly, quickly scribbling on the map, explaining how to go. In English they call this place Chair, in Spanish – Sella (well, maybe you’ll be carried there too). We returned to the college and the monastery, went down past the palace gardens and, following the sign, walked along the highway. After about 15 minutes, it became clear that we were going somewhere in the wrong direction: there were only cottages all around, and there were no traces of what this very chair looked like in our imagination.

I’ll say right away that in my understanding, the place from which the king watched the construction of the palace, and which is called the “king’s chair,” looked like a tower with an observation deck on top, no more and no less. So they were looking out for her. Sensing something was wrong (well, that is, that we were going in the wrong direction), we jumped up to the handsome senor and carefully asked if he spoke the great and mighty English. That day we were lucky: absolutely all the Spaniards interviewed spoke English, and the senor nodded in the affirmative. Having learned about the purpose of our trip, he offered to accompany us a little to the place, engaging in small talk with us along the way about Russia, how much we like Spain, and the unusually cold winter (it was about +16 outside). Actually, after we went down from the square in front of the palace, there was no need to go to any highway, but to go in the direction of the golf courses. There is a path running through the park area from the sign, so we had to stomp along it. The senor took us to this path and explained that we had to walk another 10 minutes to the “traffico zone,” that is, a busy road, and from there we could already see where to go.

The “traffic zone,” which I imagined to be at least the Moscow Ring Road, turned out to be really a highway, along which a car rushed by about once every 15 minutes. After crossing the highway, we went deeper into the forest. Along the way, on the right you will see a gray church, opposite it there are tables and benches and a stone fountain.

There is a poster nearby, behind this poster you need to go deeper into the forest. There are no pedestrian paths or signs, we walked at random, under our feet there was only moss and stones, branches crunched. It was getting dark. Larger stones began to appear, even larger ones, real boulders, which we began to climb. For some reason I remembered the beginning of the film “Brotherhood of the Wolf”, when the aunt is running away from this same wolf, who was actively hamstering the paisan. When something crunched behind me, I flew up like a bird onto the nearest boulder and looked around warily. And lo and behold, from this very boulder Escorial was clearly visible.

An idea was born - what if the king did not build a tower from which he looked at the palace, but took advantage of the fact that from this forest and from the huge stones standing on the hill, all the construction was perfectly visible?

Then our task changed - we needed to find the highest stone on this mountain and check it for the possibility of taking the king there. After about 20 minutes, it became clear that we had found what we had climbed into this forest for - in front of us there was a pile of boulders, and one of them actually had a recess in the middle, just convenient for placing an armchair for the king. That the place was not easy was confirmed by several Coca-Cola cans stuffed into a crevice between the stones, while the forest was very clean. This means that people come here... And the views from here of the mountains, the surrounding forest and the palace are truly exceptional! I can just imagine how the king, sitting on a boulder on a folding chair, looked through a telescope at the palace under construction.

It was already getting seriously dark, and we decided to jump to the station. Having wandered along the way to a nearby horse farm and discovering that it was a private property, we reached the highway and did not take the left road, which would have led us to the palace, but the right one - so, in our opinion, it was faster to the station. Questioning along the way the aborigines who had taken their bulldogs and great Danes to the local wastelands to walk, we went to the barrier, turned right behind it, then left, walked forward and after about a kilometer and a half came to the same path, illuminated by lanterns, which leads from the palace through park to the train station. I really enjoyed communicating with one don, who, apparently, had not practiced English for a long time, but explained to us where to go, he was quite intelligent, and so, when he realized from our faces that we understood him, he stuck out the tip of his tongue with pleasure and closed his eyes – helped! By the way, the people living in El Escorial are entirely respectable and decent; there are no emigrants to be seen at all. Probably an elite area, private development.

And already boarding the train and looking out the window at the towers of Escorial, illuminated by lanterns, I thought that, probably, Escorial is the most striking monument to the once powerful Spain, the ruler of half the world, an empire on which the sun never set...

“At that time we had not yet completely fallen into insignificance, we were still afloat for some time, our soldiers were not yet exhausted and the last coppers were rattling in the treasury. Holland hated us, England was afraid, the Ottoman Porte was wary, France gnashed its teeth in impotent anger, the Holy See received with great honor our ambassadors, dressed in black, invested with special powers and filled with a sense of their own importance, and the rest of Europe, barely hearing the heavy the gait of our infantry regiments - there were no equals to them in the whole world at that time - trembled with horror, as if Satan himself was beating the drum to which they walked. And believe me, a person who lived through these years and those that followed them: there is no one to put on a par with us then.”

The story about Escorial uses fragments from the book “The Cavalier in the Yellow Jacket” by Arturo Perez-Reverte.

In 1557, the troops of the Spanish king Philip II defeated the French at the Battle of Saint-Quentin in Flanders, but at the same time they destroyed the local monastery of Saint Lawrence, revered by the Spaniards. To celebrate the victory and at the same time pay tribute to the saint, the king decides to build a monastery in Spain - Escorial, but at the same time makes it his residence.

Escorial is just 50 km and an hour's drive northwest of Madrid, halfway to Segovia. You need to look for the small town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial on the map.

The palace, which in my opinion is more of a palace, is open from 10 to 6 in the cold season and from 10 to 8 in the warm season (from April to September). The palace is closed on Mondays. Ticket price is 10 euros. It comes with an audio guide (available in Russian)

In terms of its structure, Escoril is a large basilica connected to other buildings that together form a quadrat. It’s somewhat reminiscent of the fortress in Toledo, it’s all so grandiose and powerful. The northern part of the structure is a palace, and the southern part is a monastery, and each part has several courtyards, which makes the Escorial look like a grid from above, which is a reminder of the martyrdom of St. Lawrence. Moreover, the building itself has no traces of medieval architecture; it is precisely Renaissance. The king, who wanted to live here far from the court, paid great attention to the creation work.

Construction of the monastery began in 1563 and lasted 21 years

Entrance to the complex

The first room you will visit is the Escorial library, it is very rich in sacred books and Arabic monuments. But, unfortunately, you can’t take pictures in El Escorial and I wasn’t able to take a photo in the library. In fact, these are several halls, where along the walls there are shelves with old books, closed with bars, and in the center there are various globes and instruments for astronomical and geographical calculations.

View of the basilica from the library galleries

The next object is the basilica itself, you can’t take pictures in it either, but we managed to take some photos

The roof is decorated with sculptures of Old Testament prophets

A limit unique from an architectural point of view, since its creator managed to solve the issue of supporting a dome made completely flat

Baptistery

The altar, on the left and right, are the royal boxes with figures of Charles V and Philip II praying with their families

Marble crucifix, if I'm not mistaken - the work of Michelangelo

Palace galleries

View from the window to the French garden

The next point of visit is several halls of the art gallery, where Philip II collected a good collection of paintings of that time - there are works by Bosch, Veronese, Tintoreto, Titian and other old masters.

The next important part of El Escorial is the pantheon. Philip II brought the remains of his father, King Charles V, here. Since then, Escorial has been the resting place of all royalty of Spain, including princes and princesses. And only a few rulers were not buried there.

Tombs of the Royal Family

The room where the kings of Spain are buried

After the pantheon you can walk through the halls of the royal palace; it is quite modest.

This is a military hall, the walls of which are painted with images of the very battle after which Escorial was built

Suddenly I saw a mango tree in a tub in the window

This photo didn’t work out, but I left it so you can understand what the decoration of the palace looks like.

This is where the tour of Escorial ends, but in addition to the building itself, you can also visit the French geometric garden for free

Under these arches is the entrance to the palace garden

The garden has labyrinthine bushes and roses.

View of the surrounding panorama

Basilica from the altar

In addition, after exploring Escorial, which will take you about 2 hours, you can take a look at the town itself, it is pleasant and cozy, however, there is nothing interesting here.

You can park your car for free in the square near Escorial - Plaza San Anton de los Alami

Thank you for your help in visiting Escorial

El Escorial is the historical residence of the King of Spain, consisting of a palace, a monastery, a library and a museum. The entire complex is located in the city of San Lorenzo del Escorial, in the foothills of the Sierra de Guadarrama. The buildings of Escorial represent one large architectural monument of the Spanish Renaissance.
The Escorial was built by the Spanish King Philip II in honor of the victory at Saint-Quentin in 1557 over the troops of the French King Henry II. The King of Spain vowed, in the event of victory, to build a monastery that would surpass all existing monasteries in its splendor.
King Philip II was a very pious man, he honored the memory of his ancestors, he hated the bustle of the capital and adored solitude. He wished that Escorial would suit his inclinations, and the entire complex became at once not only a monastery of the Jeronimite order, but also the burial place of Spanish kings (initially Charles V of Habsburg and Isabella of Portugal) and a royal palace. The king's wish was fulfilled, and the result was a grandiose palace-monastery-necropolis, the personification of the "Golden Age" of Spain, although its architecture is dominated by the influence of Italian and Flemish architecture.
A whole expedition searched for the place for Escorial for a year; it was found in 1560 (according to other sources, at the end of 1562).
In 1563, work began under the direction of the architect Juan Bautista de Toledo (1563-1657), who created the general plan of the complex and the design of almost all the premises. The central place in it was occupied by a huge cathedral - a symbol of the king’s faith, emphasizing the primacy of religion in the politics of the monarch and Spain. The layout of the monastery was based on the plan of the Jerusalem Temple, drawn up according to the descriptions of Josephus.
By 1571 the monastery was almost completed, in 1572 work began on the royal palace, and in 1574 on the cathedral, which was completed in 1584 and consecrated in honor of St. Lawrence: the battle of Saint-Quentin took place on August 10, on this saint's day. The day of the consecration of the cathedral was supposed to mark the end of work on the entire architectural complex, although it continued to be completed for another ten years.
After the death of de Toledo, the final decoration of Escorial was carried out by another famous architect Juan Bautista de Herrera (1567-1586), who tried to introduce more “Spanish” motifs into it. He did significant work: he increased the size of the building, doubled the number of floors, united all four facades with a common cornice, designed a church and built an infirmary.
Philip II personally supervised the progress of construction. After the completion of construction, the king spent six months in El Escorial - until the end of his life, constantly adding to the collection of works by Spanish and European painters, as well as valuable books and manuscripts.
The king's successors did not experience religious awe of Escorial and visited him for two or three weeks a year, although they continued to expand the collection of paintings. The successors of Philip II tried not to destroy the integrity of the architectural ensemble, only in the 17th century. Philip IV completed the royal tomb.
Since the 1570s and until the middle of the 17th century. The architecture of El Escorial was considered a standard for all of Spain; similar buildings appeared outside its borders.
The palace and monastery complex of El Escorial is located in the center of the Iberian Peninsula, in the southern foothills of the Sierra de Guadarrama.
Many contemporaries found an undeniable similarity between Escorial and his creator - the King of Spain, a reserved and strict man.
In plan, El Escorial is a harsh, cold, gloomy, lonely rectangle with towers at the corners and courtyards. The building is dominated by straight lines, with occasional inclusions of ovals and semicircles. Even when choosing paintings and frescoes, King Philip II demanded that individual works of art not stand out, corresponding to the overall rigor of the ensemble, for which Escorial was later called “monotonous.”
The massive structure itself, built of bluish-gray granite, devoid of external decorations (with the exception of the tomb), although it seems monotonous, in harmony with the rocky, naked plain, nevertheless looks quite lively against the backdrop of mountain greenery.
The main facade of Escoriapa faces east, it has three portals, the middle one, the main one, and is decorated with a statue of St. Lawrence.
The palace also seems monotonous and deliberately ascetic in appearance, like the facade of the entire structure, but its interiors are richly decorated with sculpture and frescoes of the 16th-18th centuries.
The walls of the monastery, to which a large staircase leads, are decorated with many frescoes by Giordano, and the interiors contain a huge number of paintings. The plots of these works are devoted to a topic in which King Philip II had a special interest. In addition to the many images of the Virgin Mary from the paintings, visitors are greeted by the emaciated and distorted faces of the Savior, saints, and martyrs subjected to torture.
Also in the Escorial are paintings by the greatest masters of all time: “The Martyrdom of Saint Mauritius” by El Greco, “Christ on the Cross” by Titian, “The Torment of the Savior” and “The Torment of the Apostle James” by de Navarrete. Historians explain such a specific collection by the need to maintain in believers the spirit of resistance to the Reformation, which during the time of Philip II posed a great threat to the Catholic Church.
The domed church is the compositional center of the entire architectural ensemble; it is built on the model of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, which was completed almost at the same time as the construction of the Escorial began. The facade is decorated with six statues of the kings of Judah, with the statues of David and Solomon installed above the entrance and symbolizing the warlike Charles V and the wise Philip II; even the faces of the statues are given the facial features of Spanish kings. Inside is the world famous white marble statue of Christ by Benvenuto Cellini.
Nevertheless, for the Spaniards themselves, the 500 caskets in the monastery, which contain more than 7 thousand relics of the Catholic Church, are of much greater value.
The richly painted monastery library contains tens of thousands of volumes of rare and valuable books, its walls and panels are decorated with frescoes by Carducci and Pellegrino.
The Pantheone tomb is made in a somewhat unexpected Baroque style for such a strict building. It contains 26 marble tombstones, under which the Spanish kings from the Habsburg and Bourbon dynasties are buried, with the exception of Philip V and Ferdinand VI. The last to be buried here were King Alfonso XIII (1886-1941) and his wife Queen Victoria.
There is also the Infante tomb, which contains the ashes of princes, princesses, infantes and childless queens.
In 1984, El Escorial was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

general information

Location: central Spain.

Official status: Historical residence of the King of Spain, El Escorial.

Administrative affiliation: city of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, district of Cuenca del Guadarrama, province of Madrid, autonomous community of Madrid, historical region of New Castile, Spain.
Nearest city: San Lorenzo de El Escorial - 18,241 people. (2014).

Start of construction: 1563
Completion of construction: 1584
Language: Spanish.

Ethnic composition: Spaniards.

Religion: Catholicism.

Currency unit: euro.

Numbers

Length: 200 m.

Width: 156 m.

Height of the cathedral dome: 95 m.

Courtyards: 16.

Hieronymite monks (before expulsion): about 100.

Number of volumes in the library: 45 500.

Average January temperature: +6°C.

Average temperature in July: +25°С.
Average annual precipitation: 430 mm.

Relative humidity: 60%.

Attractions

Architectural complex of the Historic Residence of the King of Spain Escorial

External wall (16th century), cathedral (1582), monastery with royal palace and college (1584), library (1592), Pantheon tomb (finished in 1654), Casita del pavilions -Infante (1771-1773) and Casita del Principe (1772), tomb of the Infante (finished in 1888), Pinacoteca art gallery, Museum of Architecture, Jardines de los Frailes gardens (“Monastery Gardens”).

Curious facts

■ The Battle of Saint-Quentin 1557 - one of the largest battles in the war between the Habsburg and Valois dynasties of 1551-1559. for lands in France and Italy. The Spaniards, in alliance with the British and Duke Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, defeated the French. However, all the warring parties suffered colossal losses: Spain and France even refused to pay their debts, which later became a classic example of medieval “default.”
■ The name Escorial comes from the Spanish word escoria (“slag”), in ancient times there was a forge and foundries here.
■ The Jeromeite Order fell into disgrace and was expelled from the monastery three times in 1808, 1837 and 1854, until finally in 1885 the monastery was transferred to the Augustinian Order, who still occupy it. But officially the entire complex is managed by the administration of the state National Heritage Fund (Patrimonio Nacional), which manages all the real estate of the King of Spain.
■ To our time, only one monastery of El Parrap in the Spanish city of Segovia remains from the previously powerful and numerous monastic order of the Hieronymites. The order itself was almost completely destroyed during the Napoleonic wars of 1799-1815.
■ Saint Lawrence (c. 225-258) was a Spaniard, and his compatriots especially honored his martyrdom: he was roasted alive by the Romans on an iron grate for refusing to worship pagan gods. Chief architect Juan Bautista de Toledo, at the request of King Philip II, planned Escorial so that, due to the walls between the courtyards, the complex would evoke associations with the lattice on which St. Lawrence died.
■ The city of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, in which the architectural complex is located, is colloquially called Escoria de Arriba (Upper Escorial), to distinguish it from the palace-monastery called Escorial de Abajo (Lower Escorial).
■ Escorial burned more than once; the largest fires occurred in 1671 (when the entire roof structure had to be changed), 1731, 1763 and 1825.
■ Architect Juan Bautista de Toledo began his career as an architect in Rome, performing work for the great Michelangelo and Pope Paul III. He has the honor of completing the facade and courtyard of the famous Roman Palazzo Farnese.
■ Working on the final stage of the project, the architect Juan Bautista de Herrera developed a special style, characterized by the severity of architectural forms and the absence of decoration. For this, the style was called “undecorated” (“desomamentado”), better known as the “herreresco” style - after the name of the author.
■ The ashes of Don Juan of Austria (1547-1578), a Spanish commander, the illegitimate son of Charles V and Barbara Blumenberg, daughter of the burgomaster of the German city of Regensburg, are buried in the “Infante” tomb. In his will, Charles V recognized don Juan as his son, and Philip II, who sacredly honored the memory of his father, called don Juan to court and treated him favorably.
■ Princes and princesses are not exactly the same as infantas. Infante and infanta - the title of princes and princesses of the royal houses of Spain and Portugal (before the liquidation of the Portuguese monarchy in 1910), except for the heirs to the throne.

The correct name of which is San Lorenzo del Escorial, a royal residence built in the 16th century. Escorial is located 50 kilometers from Madrid, among the wooded hills of the foothills of the Sierra de Guadarama.

El Escorial Palace in Spain: history of construction

The beginning of its construction dates back to 1561, when King Philip II, the second king of the Habsburg dynasty, who ruled Spain at that time, having decided to implement the order of his father Charles V to build a royal tomb, visited the town of Escorial in the Sierra de Guadarama mountains, where lived stonemasons. Digging a little from the story, let us inform you that Escorial is translated from Spanish as “heap of slag.”

Michelangelo's student Juan Batisto de Toledo was appointed as the project's architect. He supervised the construction for the first six years - from 1563 to 1569. After his death, Juan de Herrere completed and decorated the palace. The king personally supervised all stages of construction and foresaw a departure in style from the dark Middle Ages to a more secular appearance. In plan, the architectural complex is an almost regular square measuring 161 by 206 meters, with a church in the center, a monastery to the south, and a palace to the north.

The entire outer contour of the Escorial is a closed five-story building on a high base. The entire internal space is divided into 11 courtyards, forming the appearance of the very lattice on which St. Lawrence suffered martyrdom. For a long time it was considered the largest building in the world. Experts counted 4,000 chambers in it, and the length of the corridors was tens of kilometers.

The interior decoration of the Escorial was carried out in full accordance with the orders of Philip II. For the premises of the monastery, church and tomb, the best materials that the Spanish Empire had were used, and, given its wide geography, the possibilities were very large. Inca gold from the western outskirts of the empire flowed in a continuous stream for the construction of Escorial.

Woodcarvers and sculptors from all over Spain worked to decorate its interior. Barcelona Metro from A to Z. Montjuic Mountain is a park area in Barcelona and a place of historical events. Read here. The royal chambers themselves were decorated very simply, to the point of poverty. The last stone was laid in the walls in 1584, and the decoration continued for a very long time, even after the death of Philip II, when his descendants, shocked by the ascetic severity of the royal chambers and the fact that from them, with the doors open, the altar of the church was visible, tried a little rebuild them.

The history of the construction of the dome over the basilica of the temple in Escorial is interesting. This gigantic structure, 90 meters high, took 20 years to build. It could have been even taller, but the Vatican demanded that its height not exceed the height of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Philip II loved his palace-monastery very much. His descendants continued this tradition, so that in addition to the magnificent halls of the El Escorial and its Cathedral, decorated with the greatest possible luxury, many picturesque masterpieces are also available for tourists to view.

Escorial (Spain) and its attractions

What should a tourist see? Tourists can first of all look at the architectural delights of El Escorial, one of which is the main courtyard, called the “courtyard of the kings”. It was named so because in its upper tier there are six giant sculptures depicting the Old Testament kings from Solomon to Saul. This emphasized the king's desire to demonstrate his commitment to the continuation of their work, his determination in the fight against dissent in matters of faith.

Escorial (Madrid) and museums

In addition, there are two museums in El Escorial. One of them demonstrates the history of the royal residence in drawings by various authors and eras. Also in this museum there are several models of the Escorial, many household items that were used in the daily life of the royal residence and construction tools used in the construction of this symbol of Spain.

The second occupies nine rooms and contains a royal collection of paintings by artists who worked in the 15th-17th centuries. There you can see paintings by Van Dyck, Titian, Bosch, Tintoretto, Veronese. The Cabinet of King Philip II It will be interesting to look at the chambers and study of King Philip II; they have only brick floors and smooth whitewashed walls. The king’s office is decorated with one single painting by Bosch, “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” and the throne from which he ruled his vast country is just the camp chair of his father, King Charles V.

If you want to visit the museum during your trip to Madrid, you can book a tour in advance with local guides:

Palazzo El Escorial: library

It is also interesting to visit the Escorial library, although they won’t give you anything to read there, even if you have knowledge of ancient languages. Just the contemplation of the intellectual wealth that the Spanish kings collected can be awe-inspiring, breaking the prevailing stereotype of a carefree and sweet royal life. A pantheon of Spanish monarchs was also built in El Escorial, almost all of whom, starting with Charles V, are buried there, even those who were not on the throne. The current appearance of the pantheon, decorated with bronze, marble and jasper, was created in 1617 by King Philip III, who did not adhere to such an ascetic outlook on life as his great-grandfather. Only two of the Spanish kings do not rest there - Philip V, who was hated for his gloominess, and Ferdinand VI.

Escorial - how to get there from Madrid

Architectural complex Escorial (Spain) is located fifty kilometers from, not far from a small town of the same name, which the Spaniards call “upper Escorial (Escorial de Arriba).”

- Spanish monastery, palace and royal residence. The Escorial building is located an hour's drive from the Spanish capital, right at the foot of the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains.

The palace made of granite blocks looks very severe: its facades are decorated only with corner towers, traditional for Spanish architecture. The harsh disposition of the Spanish king is reflected in the appearance of Escorial.

In Spain itself, the royal residence is called the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Externally, the palace looks more like a real fortress. Spread over a vast rectangle, it has strict and symmetrical facades, and the size of the palace walls is 206 by 161 meters.

The walls of the building, carved with military grace, may seem monotonous and artless.

There are so many windows and doors here that all attempts to count their exact number are initially doomed to failure. (The most commonly heard figure is 2500 windows and 1250 doors, but this result is not always the same.)

The main work on the Escorial belongs to two architects.

The first drawings of the project were made by Juan Bautista de Toledo: there is information that for this purpose he studied the experience of the builders of the Roman Cathedral of St. Peter.

The construction of the palace continued in 1567 by the architect Juan de Herrera, who determined the final appearance of the building.

Construction of the Escorial lasted from 1563 to 1584. Philip II, whose residence the palace later became, took an active part in the implementation of the Escorial project.

The king's chambers in the palace were placed so that the Spanish monarch could get into the church directly from them. The king chose such a strict and laconic appearance of the palace, taking care of its rich interior decoration: the chambers were decorated with many works of fine art.

Therefore, today the El Escorial Palace is also valuable as an art gallery. This architectural monument features works by such famous masters of painting as Velazquez, El Greco, Veronese, Hieronymus Bosch and Tintoretto.

A huge, solid palace - a monastery made of light sandstone, strict forms, without any decorations, stucco, columns, or statues, amazes with its monumentality against the backdrop of the bright blue sky of Spain and the greenery of the mountains.

The appearance of Escorial opened a new style in architecture, which became quite common in Spain at that time - desornamentado (undecorated).

Lion Feuchtwanger, in his article on Escorial, tells a legend according to which the Spaniards defeated the French at the Battle of San Quentin, but accidentally destroyed the monastery of the extremely revered Spanish Saint Lawrence, who died from torture on a grate installed over the fire. King Philip, in order to atone for the destruction, ordered the construction of a temple resembling a lattice in plan. The four towers at the corners were supposed to symbolize its legs, and the Palace of the Infants, protruding with its façade forward, symbolized its handle. And such a monastery with palaces was built according to the design of Michelangelo’s student Juan Batista from Toledo and his successor Juan from Herrera from 1563. to 1584

There is no ostentatious luxury or pomp of decoration either on the facades or in the interior decoration of the royal chambers. Only strict columns and statues of Old Testament kings, an elegantly executed balustrade of cornices.

The view is enlivened by beautiful courtyards with intricate plantings of rich green trees and shrubs.

The inside of the monastery is also decorated with modest gray marble. The pilasters, columns, frieze, walls of the cathedral are all in a calm gray color, but airy, light, sublime.

Only the altar, raised to a height of four floors in the main nave of the temple, decorated with marble of different colors, precious stones and jasper, illuminated through a glass lantern in the dome of the cathedral, attracts the eye.

Moreover, in the light arcade of the library, located in one of the long galleries of the palace, all the books are displayed with gilded edges facing the public, and with the spines inward, as if warning that we should not even know the names of the works that the King of Spain himself is reading.

This library, if not equal in collected rarities to the Vatican library, is in second place.

In El Escorial there is a Pantheon, magnificent in its gloom, where all the kings of Spain, starting with Charles V, are buried.

Only Philip V asked to be interred in Segovia, and the ashes of Ferdinand IV are in the capital.

Queens who gave birth to heirs to the throne are also buried here. Opposite the royal tomb is the pantheon, where infantes of both sexes and queens whose children never inherited the throne have been buried since the 19th century. It is worth visiting this substantial castle of El Escorial, where magnificent paintings by great artists are collected.

Paintings by Titian, Veronese, El Greco, Hieronymus Bosch, Tintoretto, Coelho, Ribera, tapestries based on Goya's sketches - you can list famous names for quite a long time.

Things to remember

• Dress warmly - there are always cold winds in this area of ​​Spain.
• The currency is the euro, the language is Spanish, but there are many English speakers.

Museum opening hours

• from October to the end of March from 10.00 to 17.00 (closed on Mondays)
• and from the beginning of April to September inclusive from 10.00 to 18.00 (closed on Mondays)

When visiting the museum, before purchasing a ticket (it comes with a lock diagram), you must go through a metal detector and have your belongings checked.

Prices

• The cost of visiting depending on the excursion: sightseeing, educational or historical - on average 10 Euros. You can pay by credit card.

How to get there

1. By train: line C-8 from Atocha station. It takes about an hour to get to the stop called El Escorial. Then follow the sign “Monasterio” on foot up 100 m and then along a special path through the park. Just 15 minutes walk. Return tickets cost about 8 euros.
2. By bus: from the Madrid Intercambiador bus station, which is located at the exit of the Moncloa metro station, buses No. 661 or 664 depart every 15 minutes on weekdays, every 30 minutes on weekends. The drive is about an hour. Then walk 200m from the stop. The fare is 3.20 euros.
3. Renting a car will cost from 30 Euros per day, but will make you more mobile.