San Lorenzo de El Escorial

In the western foothills of the Sierra de Guadarrama, San Lorenzo is the ideal setting, stern and darkly magical and just a short daytrip northwest of Madrid. The area was little more than a fledgling mining town when King Felipe II chose the site in the 16th century to build a monastery of monumental proportions that would also serve as the final resting place of the Habsburg dynasty. The King’s motivation was twofold: on August 10, 1557 the Spanish had defeated the French at the battle of San Quintín; coincidentally, the victory occurred on the feast day of St. Lawrence, known in Spain as San Lorenzo. The death of Carlos V, Felipe’s father, followed on the heels of this victory. Thus the inspiration for the dark, brooding El Escorial at the foot of Mount Abantos, whose name means “the slag heap” in Spanish (owing to the mine tailings then blanketing the area). The project was an immense undertaking initially headed by the architect Juan Bautista of Toledo that sapped the resources of an already bankrupt Spanish economy during the 20 years it took for completion; by then Bautista had died and Juan de Herrera had taken over. Today El Escorial is generally viewed in a more flattering light. It is seen as the perfect vision of the very stern and misunderstood king who caused its construction and, in its bold appearance, a starkly appropriate reminder of the cruel Spanish Inquisition with which that man is associated.

Sightseeing in San Lorenzo de El Escorial

Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial

El Escorial is shaped like a vast, rectangular grid with four severe façades, capped by slate roofs, connected by as many towers and only enlivened by a multitude of windows and the dome that rises above the basilica. It may just be a coincidence that St. Lawrence was roasted alive on a similarly shaped gridiron. Inside, the monastery is loaded with artistic relics ranging from paintings to ancient books to tapestries and it reeks of a history when kings ruled from here before each was ultimately laid to rest in its mausoleum.

After passing the statue of St. Lawrence and through the Grecian columns at the main entrance off Avenida Juan de Borbón y Battemberg, you step into the Patio de los Reyes. To the left is the souvenir shop (with a number of useful books on the area in English) and straight ahead the ticket booth and the Basilica (church). The church has 43 gracefully decorated altars with ceilings covered in frescoes by Lucas Jordan. Don’t neglect the two groups of statues in the church, which were cast by Pompei Leoni in Italy. On the left is the life-size rendition of Carlos V accompanied by Queen Isabel, his two sisters and their daughter. Opposite this group is the dynamic spirit of El Escorial, Felipe II, along with three of his wives and his son Don Carlos (who, due to his untimely and rather mysterious death, would not live to inherit the throne). From here, the paid tour follows a predictable course led by arrows to the Museo de Arquitectura, which has models and dioramas detailing the construction of El Escorial, and then to the adjoining Museo de Pintura, which displays mostly 16th- and 17th-century works by the likes of Ribera, Titian, Van Dyck and Veronese, to name a few.

The austere living quarters of Felipe II, as well as later successors Carlos III and IV, are grouped upstairs in the Palacio; but to see their remains, head downstairs to the Panteón Real. The octagonal mausoleum is an eerie sight, with tombs stacked in fours all around, the putrid remains of every monarch from Carlos I to Alfonso XIII inside.

Carlos V rests at the top of one group, and beneath him Felipe II, Carlos IIII and Carlos IV. Since the kings generally had more than one wife, only the Queens that had given birth to a child were allowed to be interred in this mausoleum. The surrounding rooms house the remains of the less-fortunate royalty, bastard sons, heirs that died at infancy and so on. The Biblioteca is an enlightening last stop, with its cold gray marble floors offset by a brightly-colored ceiling adorned with frescoes by Tibaldi. Hand-carved bookshelves line the walls, stacked full of ancient texts, illustrations, Arabic and Hebrew manuscripts.