EL ESCORIAL

Description

Essentials about El Escorial in brief

Those who have brought a little more time to Madrid should definitely make a day trip to the monastery complex of El Escorial. Just under 50 kilometers from the Spanish capital, in the small town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, lies one of the largest and most impressive monastery and palace complexes in Europe. Once built as the residence of King Philip II, the complex consists of a monastery, a basilica, a royal palace, a pantheon with the tombs of many Spanish rulers, a library, a museum and a picture gallery. Due to its outstanding historical and architectural importance, El Escorial has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984.

The history of El Escorial

Historically, the officially named “Real Sitio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial” (“Royal Seat of Saint Lawrence of El Escorial”) goes back to King Philip II of Spain. After defeating the French King Henry II in the Battle of Saint-Quentin on August 10, 1557, the feast of Saint Lawrence (sp. “San Lorenzo”), he vowed to build a monastery in honor of the saint. The royal court astrologers chose the small Castilian town of El Escorial (meaning “the pile of rubble”) as the ideal location.

The construction of the monastery complex, designed by Juan Bautista de Toledo (a disciple of Michelangelo), lasted from 1563 to 1584. After the latter’s death in 1567, the architect and scholar Juan de Herrera took over and became the actual builder of the Escorial.

After the completion of the complex, Philip II moved into the Escorial and ruled from here. Philip’s successors were reluctant to use the palace of El Escorial. However, for a fixed period of the year, the complex was assigned to them as a residence by court protocol. Almost all the Spanish kings from Charles I to Alfonso XIII are buried in the Baroque tomb, which was enlarged in 1654 by Juan Gómez de Mora. Charles IV, who did not like the austerity of the palace, built the Casita del Príncipe, a Moorish-style pleasure palace, nearby at the end of the 18th century. Since 1861, El Escorial is no longer a royal residence.

The complex of El Escorial

The dimensions of El Escorial are truly gigantic. The complex is 207 meters long and 161 meters wide, making it the largest Renaissance building in the world. On a floor area of 33,000 square meters, surpassed only by the Vatican Palace, there are about 2,000 chambers, about 3,000 doors, over 2,500 windows, 86 staircases, 16 courtyards, 12 cloisters and 88 fountains. Incidentally, the floor plan of El Escorial is in the shape of a grate in honor of St. Lawrence, as tradition has it that the saint was martyred on a grate of fire.

The buildings of El Escorial

Despite its massive dimensions, El Escorial does not look like a typical palace. The facades are designed in the sober style of the Spanish Renaissance because of Philip II’s preference for an ascetic lifestyle. The building complex includes a church, a monastery of the Hieronymite order dedicated to St. Lawrence (now in the care of the Augustinians), the royal palace proper, a school and a library.

The library

The library of El Escorial is one of the highlights of the complex. Housed in a 54-meter-long, 9-meter-wide and 10-meter-high hall of the palace, it contains over 40,000 books, including numerous medieval manuscripts including Latin, Greek and Arabic manuscripts. King Philip II had the library created in 1567 and it housed about 4,000 volumes of his private collection. In the following years, there were significant further donations to the Escorial library. Tragically, in 1671 a major fire destroyed a considerable part of the bookstall. In addition to the bookshelves containing thousands of historical works, the library’s magnificent ceiling frescoes are definitely worth a look.

The church

The facade of the monumental church rises opposite the main entrance in the royal court. The statues of six biblical kings stand guard over the three-portal complex. To the right and left of the entrance stand the two 72-meter-high bell towers. The height of the dome is 90 meters. Inside the church there are an incredible 40 altars. The high altar, made of red marble and jasper, is particularly magnificent. On either side of the high altar are the tombs of King Philip II and Emperor Charles V and their families. The sacristy houses, among other things, over forty valuable paintings, including works by El Greco and Titian.

The crypt

Under the church is the crypt known as the “Pantheon”. The domed structure of black marble is the burial place of most Spanish rulers, starting with Charles V and his wife, Isabella of Portugal. To be precise, it is two royal pantheons. In addition to the Pantheon of Kings, there is a separate Pantheon of Infantes, where the queens who died without crowned descendants are buried, as well as the princes and infantes.

The Royal Palace

Today, the Royal Palace of El Escorial houses porcelain, furniture and tapestries. Also worth a look is the 55-meter-long Battle Hall, where the most famous battles of the Spanish against the Arabs and from the reign of Philip II are depicted.

The Museum of Architecure and the Pinacotheca

In addition, El Escorial is home to an architecture museum and a picture gallery. Anyone interested in the architecture of the complex should visit the museum of the same name. There, visitors can trace the 21-year construction history of the huge monastery and palace complex with the help of numerous tools, plans and documents. The Pinacoteca houses a valuable collection of paintings from the 15th to 17th centuries, including works by Hieronymus Bosch, Albrecht Dürer, El Greco, Tintoretto, Titian and Veronese.