Escorial palace spain. Escorial: day trip from Madrid. Opening hours and prices

Escorial Palace-Monastery, Madrid, Spain. History of origin, features of architecture, owners..

There is an opinion that San Lorenzo de El Escorial is the eighth wonder of the world. Naturally, it is most common among the Spaniards! After all, every nation on the planet considers some of its own national buildings (or entire architectural ensembles) worthy of this high-profile title.

For Russians, this is the Kremlin, for Italians - St. Peter's Cathedral, for the French - the Palace of Versailles, and maybe the Louvre ... The list can be continued for a long time

But, perhaps, Escorial occupies a special place in the list. A grandiose building northwest of the capital of Spain, Madrid, if not a continuation of the Sierra de Guadarama mountain range (as poetically minded Spanish guidebooks say), then at least not looking like a foreign body against the backdrop of harsh local landscapes, objectively suppresses with its grandeur .

It is not difficult to imagine how it put pressure on the psyche of the monarchs who lodged here. And if the Habsburgs at the very least resigned themselves, slowly going crazy, then the first king of the Bourbon dynasty, Philip V, could not withstand the unbearable pathos. And he moved from Madrid to ... Segovia. Having built himself here a miniature Versailles with gardens and fountains, his beloved, "Farm".

Scales

Escorial in plan is a rectangle measuring 207 by 161 meters. Built from massive granite blocks, which - you can imagine - are difficult to process. Initially containing the monastery of St. Lorenzo, the royal palace and the royal tomb, it is the only universal building of its kind in the world, it can serve as a key to understanding medieval Spain.

• The length of all corridors of Escorial exceeds 24 kilometers
• In total, the complex has 9 towers, 16 courtyards, 13 chapels, 86 internal staircases and 1860 rooms, and the number of windows, they say, no one has yet been able to accurately count (there are ~ 2670 of them here)

The complex was founded on April 23, 1563, during the reign of the Spanish king Philip II (“ruler of the half world”). And it was completed in a record short time for that time: in 1584.

It took 21 years to build. And this is much less than at one time required comparable in scale (the residence of the "King-Sun" was built for more than 50 years). Or the last in the list of colossal residences (28 years: from 1752 to 1780).

History of creation

The event, in honor of which the building was built, was the victory of the Spanish army over the French at Saint-Quentin (Picardy, France) during the Franco-Spanish war. It was won on August 10, 1557, was the first military success in the reign of Philip II (ruled Spain from 1556 to 1598, born in 1527) and happened on the day of St. Lorenzo (a Catholic saint and a Spaniard by origin).

It is believed that the Escorial project was developed by the chief royal architect of Spain, Juan Bautista de Toledo (1515 (?) -1567). At the dawn of his career, he worked in Italy, taking part in the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral.

It seems likely that the architect had to take into account numerous wishes, and even direct instructions from the monarch, Philip II. So the latter in every sense can be counted among the co-authors of the complex.

De Toledo died in 1567, never having seen the completion of his most significant building. He was replaced by an equally great master, Juan de Herrera. The name of the latter is associated with the style of Spanish architecture, the so-called herreran, erreresco. Characterized by conciseness of details and almost complete absence of decor.

San Lorenzo de El Escorial is designed in the Herreresco style. And it is the most striking work of the architects of the Spanish Renaissance.

Facades and halls of Escorial

The monastery-palace complex as a whole is oriented to the cardinal points. The main, western (or monastic) façade overlooks a vast square, its central part is designed in the form of a giant two-story and 12-columned portico.

Through the gigantic front door, visitors enter the so-called Court of the Kings. And at its opposite end they see the entrance to the central part of the entire structure: the Basilica of St. Lorenzo. If you look directly at it, then on the right hand are the buildings of the Escorial monastery itself, on the left - the premises of the school (seminary).

Behind the basilica, the entrance to which is also indicated by a portico, is the royal tomb. And behind it is the palace of Philip II.

• This monarch, known for his extreme piety, insisted that his chambers adjoin the altar of the temple. And in his declining years he could attend Mass without getting out of bed (Philip II was tormented by gout) - the door from the bedroom goes directly to the choirs

Tourists rush to look at the bedroom of the “Lord of the Half World” and his office, where all issues of war and peace in Europe were decided. But they are nothing but extreme minimalism, not remarkable. The gloomy and warlike Philip II did not spend much on himself.

Another thing is the Escorial library. An extensive room, the vault of which is painted with beautiful frescoes by Pelegrino Tibaldi. It serves as a storage place for more than 40 thousand volumes, most of which are completely unique.

Here, even books are placed especially - with the spines inside, in order to preserve the bindings. True, the exposition mainly presents copies - the originals are in storerooms!

To the left of the basilica is the Palace of the Bourbons, where the kings of this dynasty (which ruled Spain since 1715) lived during their almost always short stays in the Escorial. The windows of their apartments face north and, partially, east.

To the right of the basilica, around the courtyard of the Evangelists, are the monastery premises. Part of the eastern facade is occupied by the Pantheon of the Infantes (where all the princes and princesses of the Spanish royal family are buried).

As already noted, the western and northern facades overlook vast paved areas. Near the south there are vast regular, so-called Monastery Gardens (Gardens of the Friars), laid out on the direct orders of King Philip II.

Adjacent to them is the beautiful Convalescent Gallery (Galería de Convalecientes). Walking along which you will fully appreciate the purity and freshness of the mountain air.

The northern and southern facades are completely devoid of architectural excesses and represent a severe, straight, literally fortress wall. Unless numerous windows brighten up its severity a little.

Opposite the eastern façade there is another garden, the Royal Garden. It is here that the windows of the private apartments of Philip II go out.

Collections

The gems of the collection are:

• Library (the premises are located directly above the main entrance). In terms of the number of rare books collected (about 45,000 editions of the 15th and 16th centuries and, in addition, more than 5,000 handwritten manuscripts of the Roman, Arabic and Castilian eras), it is second only to the collection
• Paintings and frescoes by Italian (Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese and Giordano), Spanish (Velasquez, Zurbaran, El Greco, Ribera, Goya), German (Bosch, Dürer) and Flemish masters
• Sculpture. Both statues carved in marble (Christ by Benvenuto Cellini) and in bronze (statues of kings) by father and son Leone and Romeo Leoni
• Reliquarium (containing about 7,500 relics - fragments of the skeleton of the saints of the Catholic Church)

Not far from the main building is a small country palace of King Charles IV, Casita del Princip. Built back in his time as heir to the throne (1771-1775, the architect José de Villanueva is the author of the project).

How to get there

The city of the same name, which arose under Escorial, is located approximately 45 km northwest of the capital, Madrid. You can get from there:

• bus lines 661 and 664 from Moncloa Interchange station
• on railway(from Chamartín or Atocha train stations).

The trip will take about an hour. The advantage of the bus is that its final stop is only a 5-minute walk from the monastery. The railway station is a 20-minute walk away. Those who do not want to climb up the mountain will have to use the local bus.

Opening hours and prices

The Escorial is open to the public on all days of the week except Mondays. From 10 am to 6 pm from October to March, from 10 am to 8 pm from April to September.

The cost of the entrance ticket to visit the main complex is 10 € (2019) for adults and 5 for children 5-16 years old. Citizens under the age of 5 enter for free! The audio guide costs 4 €.

An additional 5 will have to be paid for entrance to separate palaces: Casita del Príncipe, Casita del Infante.

Admission is free for everyone on the following days:

• International Museum Day 18 May
• October 12 National Day of Spain

A grandiose architectural complex and one of the most significant monuments of the rich historical heritage of Spain. It was built in the 16th century to commemorate the victory of Spain over France in the Battle of Saint Quentin at the foot of the Sierra de Guadarrama.

The powerful building for centuries combined the functions of a monastery of monks, a royal residence and a dynastic memorial. Now the Escorial Monastery, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, is the center of the intersection of popular tourist routes.

History of the Escorial Monastery

The Escorial Monastery was erected by order of King Philip II and became the embodiment of the idea of ​​his father, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Spain Charles V. His idea was to build a single complex that unites the royal palace, family tomb and monastery on its territory. The choice of location was not accidental. Philip II was looking for a secluded area, comfortable for rest from state affairs, not far from the capital. The area in the foothills of the Sierra de Guadarrama, protected by mountain slopes from the scorching summer sun and freezing winter winds, was ideal for construction

There was another weighty argument in favor of founding a monastery. In the battle in Flanders, Philip's troops accidentally destroyed the monastery of the Order of St. Lawrence (Lorenzo), revered in Spain, who was put to a painful death on a brazier. Philip decided to make amends with the patron saint by building a monastery.

Construction under the guidance of the famous architect and artist Juan Bautisto de Toledo, a student of Michelangelo, began in 1563. In 1569, after the death of the chief architect, Juan de Herrera, an outstanding Spanish scientist and architect, headed the completion of construction and interior decoration. The progress of the work was personally observed by Philip II, who sought to embody the strength and power of the Spanish monarchy in the guise of a castle-monastery.

The monumental structure in the style of desornamentado ("undecorated"), in the construction of which granite, marble, sandstone were used, was completed by 1584. It took almost 20 years to build the giant dome of the cathedral 90 meters high. The project was to raise the dome higher, but by order of the Vatican, the Escorial Cathedral was not to exceed the height of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Escorial: description and what to see

In the outlines of the five-story architectural ensemble with an area of ​​208 by 162 meters from a bird's eye view, the place of execution of the martyr Lawrence is guessed - an inverted giant rectangular brazier with towers 56 meters high at the corners imitating legs. From the outside, the Escorial Monastery resembles a fortification, devoid of any architectural decorations.

The entrance to the Escorial is closed by a giant bronze gate leading to the Courtyard of the Kings, decorated with statues of the biblical righteous kings - Saul, David, Solomon and others. In the center there is an artificial pond-well in the form of a temple, with pools adjacent to it on four sides, finished with multi-colored marble.

The interior space, finished in light gray marble, is divided into 16 patios (patios) that symbolize the grate of the brazier. Courtyards decorated with lush green plants are interconnected by picturesque galleries. Located in the center Cathedral of Saint Lawrence, in the northern part - the Palace of the Infantes, in the southern part - monastic buildings.

In contrast to the strict ascetic facade, the interiors of the Escorial amaze with the luxury of decoration. Military halls, royal chambers, the interior of the cathedral are decorated with silver, gold, bronze, marble sculptures by prominent sculptors of Milan. The walls and ceilings are finished with artistic painting and carving, which were worked on by the best masters of the era - El Greco, Cambiaso, Tibaldini, Castello.

Escorial Library

By decree of Philip II, a library was created in Escorial, where unique monastic codes, books, manuscripts are kept in giant glazed cabinets made of precious wood to this day. Their total number exceeds 40,000 copies. The library is located in a huge hall with a marble floor and painted walls and ceiling.

Museums in Escorial

There are two museums on the territory of Escorial.

The first of them presents an exposition of items related to the history of the creation of the complex. Among the exhibits of the museum - drawings, diagrams, construction tools, layouts.

The second museum exhibits a priceless collection of paintings by great artists - Diego Velazquez, El Greco, Jose de Ribera, Francisco Goya, Zurbaran, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Bosch. Possessing an outstanding artistic taste, Philip II was personally involved in the selection of paintings, and his collection during his lifetime amounted to more than one and a half thousand copies and occupied nine spacious halls. Later, it was constantly replenished by the heirs of the Spanish throne.

Royal tomb

Under the altar of the Basilica of St. Lawrence is the saddest and most mystical part of the Escorial - a huge royal tomb, consisting of two separate rooms.

The Pantheon of the Kings contains the remains of all Spanish kings and queens, except for Fernando VI, buried in Madrid, Philip V, whose ashes are buried in Spanish Segovia, and Amadeo of Savoy, who rests in Turin.

An indelible impression is made by the Pantheon of the Infantes, where the little princes and princesses found their last refuge - infant mortality in the late Middle Ages was very high. Next to some infants, their mothers, queens, whose children never became kings, are buried.

Useful information about Escorial

5 interesting features of Escorial

1. The Escorial Monastery has become the source of many chilling legends and legends. According to one of them, the location of the monastery was predetermined by the location in this very place of one of the seven Gates of Hell, which appeared on Earth at the behest of Satan himself. The holy monastery reliably protects Spain from the coming of Lucifer, who, according to eyewitnesses, repeatedly appeared nearby, hoping to wipe Escorial off the face of the earth. There is real confirmation of this - shortly after the completion of construction, the complex was seriously damaged as a result of a fire that arose due to a severe thunderstorm.

2. The chambers of Philip II are recognized as the most ascetic premises of the palace, the only decoration of which is the painting by Hieronymus Bosch “The Garden of Earthly Delights”.

3. In accordance with the special funeral etiquette that still exists in Spain, the bodies of deceased kings, their wives and children are first placed in a special room - the “decomposition chamber”, where they “wait their turn” in lead urns for decades when their ashes will be honored buried in luxurious sarcophagi made of marble, gold, jasper. The decomposition chamber is not empty even today - there are urns with the ashes of Victoria Eugenia von Battenberg, the wife of Alfonso XIII de Bourbon deposed in 1931, their son Juan de Bourbon and his wife Maria de las Mercedes, parents of the former King of Spain Juan Carlos.

4. There are more than 4,000 objects in Escorial, including 300 cells, 9 towers, 86 stairs, 13 chapels, 9 organs and an incalculable number of windows and doors. It is almost impossible to appreciate the grandeur and beauty of the entire ensemble in one day.

1. By train to Escorial

From Madrid to Escorial can be reached by train from the main station Atocha (Estación de Atocha) or from the station Chamartin (Estación de Chamartín), located in the north of the city. In the first case, the trip will take 65 minutes, in the second case, 50 minutes. Trains depart from Madrid every hour. You will arrive at the station of the city of Escorial, from where you have to walk about 15 minutes directly to the monastery. The price of a train ticket from Madrid to Escorial is 5.50 euros one way.

2. By bus to Escorial

From Mardid to Escorial can be reached by bus from Autocares Herranz. Buses depart from the Moncloa Interchange Bus Station (Moncloa Metro). Escorial and Madrid are connected by two bus lines: No. 661 and No. 664. It is advisable to use the route number 661, which leaves every 15-20 minutes. The journey takes about 55 minutes, while buses will take you to the city center, in close proximity to the monastery. The price of a bus ticket from Madrid to Escorial is 4.5 euros one way.

Escorial on the map:

Background information about Escorial

Visit cost:

• General ticket: 10 euros
• Children 5-16 years old and people over 65 years old: 5 euros
• May 18 and October 12: Free

Working hours:

• Open from Tuesday to Sunday (Monday closed)
• October to March: 10:00-18:00
• April to September: 10:00-20:00
• Closed on holidays: January 1 and 6, May 1, September 9, December 24, 25, 31.

Escorial on video:

- 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.

The palace of granite blocks looks very severe: its facades are decorated only with corner towers, traditional for Spanish architecture. The harsh temper of the Spanish king is, as it were, 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 out in a vast rectangle, it has strict and symmetrical facades, and the size of the walls of the palace is 206 by 161 meters.

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

There are so many windows and doors here that all attempts to calculate their exact number are initially doomed to failure. (The most common 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 evidence that for this purpose he studied the experience of the builders of the Roman Cathedral of St. Peter.

The continuation of the construction of the palace in 1567 belongs to the architect Juan de Herrera, who determined the final appearance of the building.

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

The chambers of the king in the palace were placed so that directly from them the Spanish monarch could get into the church. 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 Escorial Palace is also valuable as an art gallery. This architectural monument has the works of such eminent masters of painting as Velazquez, El Greco, Veronese, Hieronymus Bosch and Tintoretto.

A huge solid palace - a monastery of light sandstone, strict forms, without any decorations, stucco, columns, statues strikes 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 of those times - desornamentado (undecorated).

Lion Feuchtwanger, in his article on the Escorial, relates 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 torment on a grate set over a fire. King Philip, in order to atone for the destruction, ordered the construction of a temple resembling a lattice in terms of plan. Four towers in the corners were supposed to symbolize her legs, and the Palace of the Infantes, prominent with its facade forward, was a handle. And such a monastery with palaces was built according to the project of Michelangelo's student Juan Batista from Toledo and his successor Juan from Herrera from 1563. by 1584

Neither on the facades, nor in the interior decoration of the royal chambers is there any ostentatious luxury and pomp of decoration. Only strict columns and statues of the Old Testament kings, elegantly executed cornice balustrade.

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

The inside of the monastery is also finished with modest gray marble. 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 towards the public, and with the spines inside, as if warning that we should not even know the titles of the works read by the king of Spain himself.

This library, if not equal in terms of collected rarities to the Vatican library, takes second place.

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

Only Philip V asked to be interred in Segovia, and even 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 infants of both sexes and queens whose children never inherited the throne have been buried since the 19th century. It is worth visiting this solid castle of El Escorial, which contains magnificent paintings by great artists.

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

Things to Remember

• Dress warmly - this area of ​​Spain always has cold winds.
• 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 (Monday closed)
• and from the beginning of April to September inclusive from 10.00 to 18.00 (day off - Monday)

When visiting the museum, before buying a ticket (a lock diagram is attached to it), you must go through a metal detector and check things.

Prices

• The cost of visiting depending on the excursion: sightseeing, educational or historical - on average, 10 Euro. 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, which is 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. The cost of round-trip tickets is about 8 euros.
2. By bus: from the Madrid Intercambiador bus station, which is located at the exit of the Moncloa metro, buses No. 661 or 664 leave every 15 minutes on weekdays, every 30 minutes on weekends. Drive about an hour. Then from the bus stop 200m on foot. The fare is 3.20 euros.
3. Renting a car will cost from 30 Euro per day, but will make you more mobile.

At 50 km from Madrid, among the hills covered with dense forest, rises a huge rectangle of the monastery of St. Lawrence - San Lorenzo. This is the famous Escorial, the most famous historical monument in Spain, created at the behest of King Philip II. Among other famous architectural masterpieces Spain is amazing in Granada, majestic and impregnable in Segovia, a formidable castle in Murcia, an exquisite castle in the province of Biscay.

Escorial, an architectural wonder of Spain

Behind the bridge over the river Guadarrama, the ascent begins - mountainous slopes, stony soil, heaps of brown rocks, shrubs, rare pines. There are small villages with red tiled roofs. The slopes are covered with beautiful oak groves.

From the second rise you can see Escorial. It is located at the foot of a grandiose amphitheater of grey-steel granite rocks. The impeccably regular rectangle of the ensemble, crowned with a dome, seems quite small from afar. Its severe, gloomy appearance is emphasized by the gray granite walls of the monastery, the clarity of architectural forms, and the absence of any sculptures or other decorations.

A different impression arises when looking at El Escorial from the north, from the slopes of the Sierra de Guadarrama, as if the whole city rises in the vast, sun-drenched silver valley of Manzanares. Boundless wide expanses, arrays of wild lilac mountains, clean fresh air and amazing clear light under the mountain sky - everything creates the feeling of a free world spread around. It was necessary to find completely special forms of figurative expression so that the architectural complex built here would not be absorbed by the grandeur and infinity of this beautiful world.

As soon as the construction of Escorial was completed, the Spaniards were not slow to proclaim this architectural monument as the eighth wonder of the world. Written in 1609 by Lope de Vega, the comedy was called “The Eighth Wonder” and allegorically sang the miraculous temple erected by the “King of Bengal” at the foot of a high mountain, whose name is Guadarrama.

The fame of Escorial in many countries of the world was greatly facilitated by the engravings of 1587 by Pedro Pereta based on the drawings of the architect Juan de Herrera. The basis of literature about the famous royal ensemble was laid by historians, chroniclers, travelers of different nationalities. But Escorial also had its own erudite historiographers in the person of the monks of the Hieronymite order, for which the monastery of San Lorenzo was intended. Among them, first of all, should be named Fra José Siguenza, a scientist, writer, musician, the first keeper of the Escorial library, author of the History of the Order of St. Jerome (1600-1605) - one of the main sources on the history of Escorial.

Escorial, construction history

The creation of the ensemble is usually attributed to a series of coincidental circumstances. August 10, 1557, the day of the feast of St. Lawrence (San Lorenzo), the combined Anglo-Spanish army defeated the French troops at the Battle of Saint-Quentin. Philip II, impatiently awaiting the outcome of the battle, at the joyful news of the victory, vowed to erect a temple in the name of St. Lawrence. Martyr Lawrence was especially close to the Spanish heart because he was from Aragon. According to legend, the plan of Escorial is in the form of a lattice, on which the saint was burned alive in 261 by order of the Roman emperor Valerian.

In addition to his passion for St. Lorenzo Philip II was distinguished by self-absorption, melancholy, deep religiosity and poor health. He was looking for a place where he could rest from the cares of the king of the most powerful empire in the world.

The king wanted to live surrounded by monks, not courtiers; in addition to the royal residence, El Escorial was to become, first of all, the monastery of the order of St. Jerome. Philip II said that he wanted to "build a palace for God and a shack for the king."

The future building was supposed to combine the monastery, the personal residence of the king and, in pursuance of the will of the late father of Charles V, the tomb of the Spanish monarchs. The location of Escorial was chosen after long and careful surveys of the Manzanares river valley by a special commission. The Spanish chronicler José Siguenza wrote: "The king was looking for a landscape that contributed to the elevation of his soul, conducive to his religious reflections."

The village of El Escorial near the empty iron mines (from the Spanish escoria - “slag”, from where the name of the ensemble came from) attracted with its good location, healthy climate, an abundance of mountain springs and the presence of excellent building material - light gray granite.

The construction of the ensemble, begun in 1563, was carried out under the personal supervision of Philip II. At the head of all the work was a talented and experienced leader - a monk of the order of the Hieronymites, Fra Antonio de Villacastin. Enormous funds were allocated for the construction. Not only all of Spain, whose various regions supplied marble, pine wood, wrought iron lattices, church utensils, crosses, lamps, lamps, embroideries and fabrics, participated in the creation of the Escorial, but also other European countries, as well as American colonies, from where they brought gold and valuable tree species.

Philip II entrusted the construction of the Escorial to Juan Bautista de Toledo, his chief architect, whom he brought back from Italy in 1559, where he studied and worked for a long time in Naples and Genoa.

Gradually, the name of Juan de Toledo faded into the background and faded in the shadow of Juan de Herrera (c. 1530-1597), his talented young assistant, who led the construction in 1567 and became the generally recognized creator of the Escorial.

To decorate Escorial, the king attracted the best foreign craftsmen. The Italians Pellegrino Tibaldi, Federico Zuccaro, Luca Cambiaso, Romulo Cinchinato, Niccolo Granello, Fabrizio Castello, Bartolome Carduccio and others worked here. Much later, at the end XVII century, in the reign of Charles II, the painting of the vault of the main nave of the Cathedral of San Lorenzo, as well as the vault and frieze of the main internal staircase, was created by the Italian Baroque master Luca Giordano. In general, the vast majority of the artistic treasures of the Escorial, as well as the museums of Madrid, are the works of Italian masters.

Another feature that makes no less impression in Escorial is the contrast between the crampedness and poverty of the personal home of Philip II and the enormous size of the palace chambers intended for receptions and worship. There are more than eleven thousand windows in these chambers, and a weak beam of light through a small door barely penetrates into a narrow room that once belonged to the ruler of half the world. The books of the magnificent palace library are very curiously arranged on the shelves: with gold edges on the outside, and with the roots inside, as if the rulers of the Escorial wanted to warn the public that they should not know the titles of the works that the king reads.

As they say, before his death, Philip II wished to say goodbye to Escorial. For a long time, for six days, the dying king was slowly carried on a stretcher from Madrid. His foggy gaze still managed to last time see your favorite child. A few hours later, the king died ... Starting with Philip II, Escorial became the burial place of the kings of Spain.

Later, the rulers made changes to the Escorial, but despite this, it retains its artistic unity to this day. In the 17th century, Philip IV completed the construction of the Royal Pantheon, which contained the remains of the Spanish kings.

Royal Pantheon of Escorial

One of the goals of the construction of El Escorial by Philip II was to create a mausoleum for his father, Emperor Charles V, whose remains were transferred here in 1586. The ashes of all the kings of Spain, starting with Charles V, are buried here, except for Philip V, who could not stand the gloom of the Escorial and asked to be buried in Segovia, and Ferdinand VI, whose grave is in Madrid.

Both kings and queens, who gave birth to male heirs, are buried here in stone boxes on the shelves of whatnots, having previously rested for 50 years in the secret rooms of “pudrideros”, and moved to the Pantheon already in the form of dust.

Opposite is the Pantheon of the Infantes, built in the 19th century, connected by an underground corridor, where princes, princesses and queens are buried, whose children did not inherit the throne. The sarcophagus for royal children (El Panteon de Infantes) who died in infancy is called "La tarta" (cake) because of its curvaceous shape. It was built at the request of Queen Isabella II in 1888 by master José Segundo de Lema.

The peculiar design of this ambiguous structure makes it easy for people endowed with a developed imagination to imagine this "cake" cut into slices and stuffed in the form of a juvenile dauphin in each serving.

Two tombs in Escorial are empty. The last to be buried here was the only non-king who was so honored - Don Juan Bourbon. His son and the current King Juan Carlos I, and indeed the entire people of Spain, felt that he deserved such a token of recognition for his support of democracy under Franco and his renunciation of the throne in favor of his son for a peaceful transfer of power.

Also, in addition to the royal tomb in Escorial, there are many rooms for royal relatives, but the tombstones are mostly the same: the same or almost the same sarcophagi, coats of arms and inscriptions.

The marble tomb of Juan of Austria, the winner of the Turks in the historic battle of Lepanto in 1571, stands out here with particular beauty. He is the illegitimate son of Emperor Charles V. Everyone knows him under the name of Don Juan, the very one who broke the hearts of the frivolous ladies of his time. This is probably why there are 14 (!) wedding rings on his fingers. A knight of Carrara marble rests in a dream, clutching a sword in his hands. At his feet are gloves of armor, as a sign that he did not die in battle, but died of illness.

Over the next few hundred years, the Escorial lost some of its collections due to fires and looting, but even today it remains the most complete and impressive monument of the late Renaissance in Spain. Now Escorial is included in and is one of the most visited.

First of all - simplicity in construction,
severity in general;
nobility without arrogance,
grandeur without ostentatious luxury ...
From the instructions of King Philip 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 canvases are in Spanish, in the Escorial, a stand with information is attached to each hall.

At some point, the pictures end and we follow the signs to the famous "Battle Hall", or, as it is also called the "Halberd Hall".

“... I took four steps and found myself on a wide gallery: its ceiling and walls were decorated with frescoes depicting battle scenes, and from the furniture there was only a desk with an ink set on it and an armchair. Nine windows overlooking the inner courtyard gave me enough light so that I could see a canvas hanging on the far wall, depicting the fight between the Christian knights of old times with the Moors, and all the details of weapons and harness were written out in great detail. Then, for the first time when I was in the so-called "Battle Gallery", I could not imagine to what extent these paintings, glorifying the past triumphs of Spain - loud victories at Iguruela, Saint Quentin and Tercer - as well as the rest of the palace, would become familiar to me."

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

The hall where portraits of the Habsburgs hang is also good - even if you don’t know that they are all entirely representatives of the same family, it is immediately noticeable: branded bulging eyes and a protruding lower lip - numerous family marriages did not benefit the descendants. In the reception hall, doors made of seventeen types of wood, donated to the Spanish king by 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 adjoining rooms there are very beautiful views of the Escorial gardens.

“And the gardens, really striking the imagination, formed into outlandish figures, bizarre labyrinths 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 curled on trellises, they went to the south wing in lovely terraces, opening up a pond where ducks and swans swam. From the south and west, mountains rose in greenish-gray-blue masses, and in the east far, as far as Madrid, boundless pastures and royal forests stretched.

It is often written that the king's bedroom, where he died, strikes with asceticism. Well, I don’t know how many castles and palaces I have visited in my life, everywhere the private chambers of nobles and kings were much more modest than the main halls, glittering with gold, paintings, marble or something else. A bedroom is like a bedroom, frankly speaking, not a cell. But right 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 be present at all services.

There is also a solar line in the map hall - a metal strip on the parquet 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 there was a special hole in the wall of the room through which the sun penetrated into the room, into noon the sun was exactly on this line, and thus the clock was checked in the palace. The letter F stands for King Ferdinand VI, under whom this thing was made.

Pantheon of the Kings

The tomb of the kings of Spain, starting with Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, 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. King Alfonso XIII was the last to be buried here. 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 the time of 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 mother of the king, but was buried here because her son, heir to the throne, died much later than her.

“Our queen was beautiful. And a Frenchwoman. She was the daughter of the great Henry IV, was twenty-three years old, white skin, a dimple on her chin. Although the greatness of her majesty was tempered by natural intelligence and subtlety, anyone would immediately say that she was born to reign: this foreigner sat on the Spanish throne as easily and comfortably as her relative Anna of Austria, sister of Philip the Fourth and wife of Louis the Thirteenth - 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 should be the ruler of Europe - both queens, brought up in the strictest concepts of duty and honor, determined by blue blood, without hesitation and hesitation supported their august husbands, and the interests of the new fatherlands were perceived as their own. So the harsh times that were not slow to come gave rise to a curious paradox: we, the Spaniards, who were ruled by a Frenchwoman, cut with the French, who were ruled by a Spaniard. Damn it, what unexpected knees are broken off by politics and war.

Having read in advance that he was buried here with his wife, Dona Maria (Doña María de las Mercedes), the father of the current king, Don Juan de Borbón, who abdicated in favor of his son, I searched for his tomb for a long time and unsuccessfully, 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 with the pantheon is a room called pudridero in Spanish, or in our opinion, “decomposition room” (however 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 front tombs . There are 2 such "decomposition rooms" - for kings and for the pantheon of princes. Only the monks of the monastery, which is still active in Escorial, have access to them.

Don Juan and his wife will be placed in the pantheon of kings, although in fact they never were king and queen - due to the revolution in Spain, the Second Republic and the expulsion of Alfonso XIII from Spain. Nevertheless, the current king decided to go against tradition and bury his father among the kings, and the Spanish people supported him - it’s clear to everyone that de jure don Juan was still the king of Spain, although he refused the throne. The third urn in the “decomposition room” 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 never, strictly speaking, became the mother of a king, she would also be buried in the pantheon of kings - as the mother of don Juan, who was recognized as king. It is for the three of them that the three remaining empty tombs in the royal pantheon are intended. The question of where the now living members of the royal family will be buried is still open. Apparently, the Spaniards, who visited the pantheon at the same time as us, were engaged in the discussion of this issue - very loudly and irreverently.

Further tourists are offered to visit the so-called Pantheon of the Infantes. Not only the children of kings are buried there, but also those wives whose children did not become kings. An example, when 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 have 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 had, judging by the tombs, 3 wives, and 2 of them are buried in the pantheon of the Infantes, nearby), yes and infant mortality was high in those days. Perhaps the most memorable is the huge cake-shaped marble mausoleum for princes and princesses who died before adulthood.

Involuntarily, we recalled the tomb of the Habsburgs in Vienna in the Kapuzinerskirche, where in the dungeon, where your steps resound, artsy and dusty tureen-tombs sadly stand. It is felt there that all this is the past, history, and in the tomb of Escorial it is somehow felt that there will still be burials here, and this is a little creepy.

Basilica of San Lorenzo el Real

In the Escorial Cathedral you feel so overwhelmed
so broken, so melancholy
and crushed by unbending strength,
that prayer seems completely useless.

Theophile Gauthier

The Basilica of San Lorenzo el Real is not in the form of a Latin cross, as was originally intended, but in the form 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 Battista de Toledo was a student of Michelangelo), but if all of San Pietro is the triumph of the Renaissance, then the basilica, commissioned by the stern king, is severe, 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 murals were supposed 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 dissuaded himself with poor health and refused to come. Therefore, the paintings on the ceiling and behind the altar were made by less venerable European masters.
http://www.wga.hu/art/c/coello/sagradaf.jpg

In addition to secular art, the decoration of the basilica and the monastery are 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 cancer and arks stood there, they kept 10 whole skeletons that belonged 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

For a snack inspecting the palace - the library of the palace, second only to the Vatican. However, first you pay attention to the bright painting of the ceiling and end walls, which was made by master Tibaldi and his daughter. Allegorical images of sciences and arts symbolize rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music and grammar, end walls are dedicated to theology and philosophy.

Along the walls there are large glazed 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, church literature published in the Middle Ages. The library is said to hold approx. 40 thousand books and approx. 3 thousand manuscripts. Of course, you will notice that the books stand with their spines against the wall - the decorations of the bindings were taken care of in such a peculiar way. I wonder how then they were looking for the right book - pulling everything out of the pages? Even assuming that the librarians had catalogs and descriptions of what was where, this process was laborious and cumbersome. However, it can be assumed that the kings did not read, but only collected books, then everything is simplified. 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 are globes and astronomical instruments - it is true that one of the kings dabbled in the study of the starry sky, or they were transferred from classrooms where infants were taught various sciences.

Leaving the palace, we went to a sun-drenched square called lonja, where the children who studied 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 the Escorial.

The statue of King Philip II in the Frailes Garden (Jardin de los Frailes) admires this view of the work of his hands, where you can see monks strolling. And our goal was to find the famous "Philip's chair", where the king watched the construction of the palace.

Philip's armchair

Opposite the entrance to the palace, where the cash desks are 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 Armchair. Auntie in the travel agency was surprised at the question of tourists, quickly understood what was required of her, and began to quickly, quickly draw on the map, explaining how to go. In English, they call this place Chair, in Spanish - Sella (well, suddenly you will be carried there too). We returned to the college and the monastery, went down past the gardens of the palace and, guided by the sign, stomped along the highway. After about 15 minutes, it became clear that we were going somewhere in the wrong direction: there were only cottages around, and there were no traces of how this chair looked like in our imagination.

I must 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 observation deck at the top, no more and no less. That's what they looked for. Sensing something was wrong (well, that is, that we were going in the wrong direction), we jumped up to the handsome seigneur and carefully asked if he spoke great and powerful English. That day we were lucky: absolutely all the Spaniards interviewed spoke English, and the seigneur nodded in the affirmative. Having learned about the purpose of our trip, he offered to take us a little to the place, on the way having a small talk with us about Russia, about how we like Spain, about an unusually cold winter (it was about +16 outside). Actually, after we went down from the square in front of the palace, we didn’t have to go to any highway, but we had to go in the direction of the golf courses. A path runs through the park area from the signpost, so we had to stomp along it. The seigneur brought us to this path, explained that it would take another 10 minutes to walk, to the “traffico zone”, that is, a busy road, and from there you can already see where to go.

The “traffic zone”, which I imagined at least the Moscow Ring Road, turned out to be really a highway, along which a car passed about once every 15 minutes. Crossing the highway, we went deeper into the forest. On the way to the right you will have a gray church, in front of it there are bench tables and a stone fountain.

There is a poster nearby, behind this poster you need to go deeper into the forest. There are no hiking trails and signs, we walked at random, there was only moss and stones under our feet, branches crunched. It was getting dark. Bigger stones began, even bigger ones, real boulders, on which we began to climb. For some reason, I remembered the beginning of the film "The Brotherhood of the Wolf", when the aunt runs away from this very wolf, which was actively hamstering the peyzan. When something crunched behind me, I flew like a bird to the nearest boulder and looked around warily. And lo and behold, Escorial was perfectly visible from this very boulder.

The thought 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 all the construction was perfectly visible from this forest and from the huge stones standing on the hill?

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 climbed into this forest for - there was a pile of boulders in front of us, and one of them really had a recess in the middle, it was just convenient to put an armchair for the king. That the place was not easy, was confirmed by several cans of Coca-Cola, thrust into a crevice between the stones, while the forest was very clean. So, there are people here ... And the views from here to the mountains, the surrounding forest and the palace are really exceptional! So I 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 dark, and we decided to jump to the station. Wandering along the way also to a horse farm located nearby and finding that it is a private property, we reached the highway and did not take the left road, which would lead us to the palace, but the right one - this way, in our opinion, it was faster to the station. Asking 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 after it, then left, went forward and after about a kilometer and a half we came to the very path, lit by lanterns, which leads from the palace through park to the train station. I really liked the communication with one don, who, apparently, had not practiced English for a long time, but explained to us where to go, he was quite sensible, and so, when he realized from our faces that we understood him, he even stuck out the tip of his tongue with pleasure and closed his eyes - helped! By the way, the audience in Escorial is entirely respectable, decent, emigrants are not visible at all. Probably an elite area, private development.

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

“At that time we had not yet completely fallen into insignificance, we still kept afloat for some time, our soldiers had not yet been transferred and the last coppers were rattled in the treasury. Holland hated us, England feared us, the Ottoman Porte was wary, France gnashed its teeth in impotent rage, the Holy See received with great honor our ambassadors, dressed in black, invested with special powers and full of consciousness of their own significance, and all the rest of Europe, barely hearing the heavy the tread of our infantry regiments - they had no equal in the whole world at that time - trembled with horror, as if Satan himself beat the drum to which they walked. And you really believe the person who survived both 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 Arturo Perez-Reverte's book The Cavalier in the Yellow Jacket.