See also: Escurial (homonymy)

The royal Site of Saint Laurent of Escurial or Escorial (in Castilian: El Real Sitio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial ) is a great complex (Palais, Monastère, Musée and Bibliothèque) which is with Escurial (in Castillan: El Escorial ), commune located at 45 kilometers in the North-West of Madrid, in the the autonomous Community of Madrid (Spain).

The name of Escurial comes from an old village located close to the place where this monastery-palate was built, today the commune of Escurial, (12  669 inhabitants in 2003). One should not confuse it with Saint Laurent of Escurial, (14  358 inhabitants in 2003), appeared subsequently to the building.

This monumental complex is located beside the Abantos mountain in the Sierra of Guadarrama. It was ordered by the king Philippe II to commemorate the victory of Saint-Quentin the August 10th 1557 over the troops Henri II, king de France and to be used as place of burial of his parents, the emperor Charles Quint and Isabelle of Portugal, like with itself and its successors.

The plan of the building, with its turns, recalls the shape of a grill. One affirms traditionally that the building has built in memory with Saint Laurent, martyrized in Rome roasted on a grill. The St. Lawrence is celebrated the August 10th, also date birthday of the battle of Saint-Quentin, from where the name of the unit and the locality which surrounds it.

Actually, the architectural origin of this plan is very discussed. By drawing aside the idea of the grid, which appeared only when Herrera removed the six interior towers of the time, the plan appears to be much more based on descriptions of the Temple of Solomon by the historian judéo-Roman Flavius Josèphe. It would then have been arranged in order to adapt this idea to the needs for the monastic program and the multiple functions that Philippe II wanted to place in the building: the Pantheon, basilica, convent, college, library, palate, etc All that doubled initial dimensions of the building.

The statues of Solomon and David flank the entry of the church by showing a parallelism between the warrior Charles Quint and the careful Philippe II. Same manner, the fresco of Solomon who is in the center of the library, showing his image of a greater wisdom: the episode celebrates with the Queen of Sheba. Construction started, with the installation of the first hones the April 23rd 1563. Under the responsibility of the architect Juan Bautista de Tolède, who could not finish it, dying in 1567, passing the direction with its disciple, Juan de Herrera, which in the long term carried out it in 1584, with such a success that its work gave birth, in Architecture, at the school herreriana. The November 2nd 1984, UNESCO classified the royal Site of SAINT LAURENT of Escurial to the Inheritance of the Humanity, which it in addition to like the eighth wonder of the world. The principal elements of the palate are:

The Library , equipped with a collection of more than 40.000 volumes of great value, placed in a great nave of 54 meters length, 9 meters broad and 10 meters in height with a marble ground and noble, rich and carved wood libraries. The vault of the ceiling is decorated with frescos representing the seven liberal arts: Dialectical Rhetoric, , Music, Grammar, Arithmetic, Geometry and Astrology.

The Palate Philippe II , formed of a series of parts decorated with austerity, was the place of residence of the king Philippe II. Located beside the principal furnace bridge of the Basilica, it has a window which made it possible to the king to follow the mass since its bed when it was sick or suffering. It is said in particular that he suffered from the drop.

The Basilica , its remarkable nave, by the distance between its fulcrums seems to be punt, the larger furnace bridge with a 26 meters height retable and 14 broad.

The Room of the Battles , where frescos represent the principal battles gained by the Spanish armies.

The the Pantheon of the Kings , composed of 26 tombs of marble where the remainders of the kings of the houses of Austria and Bourbon rest, except Philippe V, Ferdinand VI, Joseph I Bonaparte and Amédée of Savoy. The polished marble walls of Tolède are decorated with ornamentations with gilded bronze.

The last remainders deposited in the Pantheon were those of the king Alphonse XIII and woman the queen Victoire Eugenia de Battenberg.

Exceptionally, one finds the sarcophagus of “Jean III”, father of Juan Carlos Ier, although it never reigned.

The the Pantheon of Infantes , finished in 1888, is intended to the princes, for the infantes and to the queens who were not mothers of kings. With walls and grounds of white marble that of Don Juan of Austria is dissociated. Over the 60 caveaux present, 36 are currently occupied.

The Chapter houses , currently intended for paintings, were the rooms where the monks held their chapters, species of mutual confessions to maintain the purity of the congregation.

The Art gallery , gathers works of the schools German, Flemish, Venetian, Italian and Spanish, of the XV, XVI and XVII centuries.

The Musée of Architecture consists of 11 rooms and presents the tools, cranes and other materials employed in the construction of the monument, as well as reproductions of plans and document concerning to works. Very interesting models are also present and make it possible to appreciate the general architecture of the building.

The Jardins of the Monks , built at the request of Philippe II, who was in love with nature, constitute an ideal place for the rest and the meditation. Manuel Azaña, which studied in the college of Augustins of this monastery, quotes them in its Mémoires and its work the garden of the brothers .

External bonds

• doctoral Thesis Juan Rafael of the Hall on the relation of Escurial with the Temple of Solomon

• Web site of the Spanish National heritage (Spanish and English)

• Site of Tourism of San Lorenzo of el Escorial (Spanish and English)