Why did Philip II build El Escorial near Madrid?

Philip II builds El Escorial

Felipe II construye El Escorial

1563–1584. In a letter of 1561 Philip II explained why he wanted a monastery in the Guadarrama hills north of Madrid: a tomb for his parents and himself, dedicated to St…

Where: Spain, Madrid

What happened

In a letter of 1561 Philip II explained why he wanted a monastery in the Guadarrama hills north of Madrid: a tomb for his parents and himself, dedicated to St Lawrence, on whose feast day, 10 August 1557, his army had beaten the French at Saint-Quentin. Work began in 1563 under Juan Bautista de Toledo and, after his death in 1567, was finished in 1584 by Juan de Herrera, whose bare granite style, the 'Herrerian', spread across Spain and its empire. The vast rectangle held a monastery, a basilica, a royal palace, a library and the pantheon of the kings. Philip governed his world empire from a small room beside the altar, and died there in 1598. UNESCO listed it in 1984.

Say it

Felipe II gobernó su imperio desde el monasterio de El Escorial.

Philip II governed his empire from the monastery of El Escorial.

Why it matters

The Escorial is the architectural image of Philip II's Spain: austere, Catholic and centralised; its library and its style travelled to cathedrals and town halls from Mexico to Lima.

There today

See
At San Lorenzo de El Escorial, in the hills north of Madrid, you can visit the basilica, the library, the royal palace and the pantheon of the kings.

Read about it

Connected

Sources

  1. Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial — Spain.info (Turespaña)
  2. Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial — Turismo San Lorenzo de El Escorial (Ayuntamiento)