Monastery and Site of the Escurial, Madrid
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How it came to be
El Escorial stands at the foot of the Sierra de Guadarrama, about 45 km northwest of Madrid. Philip II built it to commemorate the Spanish victory over Henry II of France at the Battle of St Quentin on 10 August 1557, and as a burial place for the royal family.
The cornerstone was laid on 23 April 1563 to designs by Juan Bautista de Toledo, who had worked on St Peter's in Rome. When Toledo died in 1567 his apprentice Juan de Herrera took over and finished the building in 1584, in just under 21 years. Tradition says the gridiron plan honours St Lawrence, martyred on a grill, whose feast falls on 10 August.
The complex joins a monastery, basilica, royal palace, school and library, and its crypt holds most Spanish kings since Charles V. A fire in 1671 destroyed about 5,280 manuscripts in the library. UNESCO listed the site in 1984.
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