El Escorial

At the foot of the Guadarrama mountains, El Escorial became the setting for one of the great monuments of the Spanish monarchy. Philip II ordered the construction of San Lorenzo de El Escorial as a monastery, royal residence and burial place for his dynasty. Its austere, immense complex includes a basilica and a library assembled to hold books and manuscripts from many lands. Its orderly stone façades and courtyards stand against the rugged slopes of the Sierra de Guadarrama.

The first stone was laid in 1563 and the last in 1584. Scholars worked to arrange the royal library while the building was still in progress. Philip returned repeatedly to the monastery and died there in 1598, leaving a lasting expression of the close bond between royal authority and religious devotion.