El Escorial

Wikipedia Photo

We took a day trip from Madrid 28 miles southwest to the town of Lorenzo de el Escorial.  From our hotel we took the blue Metro train to the bus station.  The bus ride was quite comfortable.  Spanish buses are relative new, clean, and air conditioned.  The guidebook said that the Monestario de El Escorial was a ten minute walk from the bus station.  What it didn't say was that it was uphill like climbing a mountain.  Other than the desert I don't think there is much flat land in Spain, or if there is, they didn't build a lot there. Nevertheless, we walked to this popular tourist attraction, which was at the bottom of  hill!  This was before the noon hour, and we had to wait to buy tickets to gain entry. Fortunately, there was a pamphlet available in English.  No photography was allowed. The question for me was: do I take the time to do accurate sketches or try to sneak some photos.  If I'm caught taking photographs, they will only tell me to stop. Or, could they confiscate my camera?  I don't know.  I decided to draw, but not much.  I would rather see a lot and remember, than to get a few very good drawings.

This place is huge! Although it was originally built as a monastery it now includes a palace, basilica, library, pantheon, and then some.  We familiarized ourselves with the map before entering the rooms with exhibits explaining the architecture of the structure.  I found this very fascinating.  Here there were scale models of the buildings and the ancient tools used to build the structure.  A mock-up showed how the roof was covered with slate with corners protected with sheets of lead to maintain watertight integrity.  Claudette reminded me that we needed to keep moving, and a security guard smiled approvingly at my quick sketches.  The building's cornerstone was laid April 23, 1563 during the reign of Phillip II.  Juan Bautista de Toledo was the architect, but he died before the project was finished. This same architect had worked on St. Peter's in Rome.  Many theories exist about the double courtyard design, but the most prevalent is that the design is based on that of Solomon's temple from the biblical scriptures.

This was a beautiful place with wide vaulted hallways with paintings on the ceilings and walls. Many paintings depict Spanish history. Titian, El Greco, and Valasquez are a few of the great artists represented here.  I reminded Claudette that this was built during the time Spain was bringing all the gold and silver from the new world.

"Oh, really?" she queried.

"Yes, see all these artifacts from the new world, like that old map over there," I said. "What they don't tell you is that most of the treasures brought from the new world were used to pay off the debt incurred by the monarchs when fighting wars."

We were in the palace part of the building. There were many ceramic works too, particularly tiles.  I'm not sure why ceramics are so common on the Iberian peninsula.  Claudette discovered an interesting sun clock.  Normally when we think of using the sun to determine time, we think of a sundial.  But here was something different.  In one of the rooms with little furniture that overlooked the garden there was a small quarter-sized hole in the wall near the ceiling. A beam of sunlight from this opening would shine on a spot on the floor which had a graduated scale much like a ruler on it.  The markings were in increments of time.  The configuration was a sun clock, and the graduations were inlaid with ceramics. One of the very interesting things we saw was the reclining chair of King Phillip II.  The monarch had severe gout which, of course, made it painful to move. Through an ingenious system of levers and wire he could raise himself from the sitting to the standing position. It was the least "royal" chair I had ever seen.

Wikipedia Photo

It is called the Pantheon of the Kings, but we called a crypt, and it was a long way down. There is a narrow steep stairway, and a pretty blond girl stumbled and almost fell.  I think maybe high-heeled shoes aren't meant for crypt observation.  Once we reached the lower level we stared at the final resting place of Spanish monarchs. There are twenty-six marble sepulchers containing the bones of the royals. They are labeled and decorated with bronze. But the remains are put in the sepulchers 50 years ofter they've died.  There are two rooms visited only by the monks where the royal bodies decompose. We weren't allowed to visit them.  And, we didn't want to. Another interesting fact is there is no place in the crypt for the current royal family.

The library is another grandiose display of the Spanish monarchs' extravagance.  King Phillip II left his personal library here as well as many other documents.  There are also some Moorish manuscripts from the time of Moorish rule of Spain. The vaulted library contains some 40,000 volumes. On the ceiling are frescoes depicting the seven liberal arts.

not a Wikipedia Photo

We enjoyed the strolling courtyards before leaving.  Near the top of the hill we had  jamone on dark bread for lunch with bottled water. We paid the tourist price for water: three euros.  But, it was good.  Normally we fill up empty bottles in the hotel to carry with us but not that day.