Village
San Lorenzo de El Escorial, a town of about 18,900 inhabitants at 1,032 metres, on the slope of Mount Abantos, is known as El Escorial de Arriba, to distinguish it from the neighbouring village of El Escorial, or El Escorial de Abajo. It was born in the time of Charles III, in the 18th century, as a split from that village, taking with it the monastery that Philip II built at the end of the 16th century, declared together with the Real Sitio a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1984. At that time, the architect Juan de Villanueva laid out the historic centre and traced squares and streets, among them Calle de Floridablanca, and closed the monastery's Lonja with the Casas de Infantes. The Casitas del Príncipe and del Infante and the La Herrería forest complete the royal site; its territory also contains the Valle de Cuelgamuros.
Monument
Built between 1563 and 1584 at the wish of Philip II, it was begun by Juan Bautista de Toledo and completed by Juan de Herrera, who imposed his austere bare-granite style on it; around the monastery lay the historic Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, a royal-seigneury territory linked since the 16th century to the Royal Houses of the Habsburgs and the Bourbons, today managed for the most part by Patrimonio Nacional. The present-day town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, founded in the time of Charles III, arose as a division from El Escorial and inherited within its boundaries the main buildings of the former Royal Site, including the monastery itself. Unesco inscribed the complex, under the name «El Escorial, Monastery and Site», on the World Heritage list on 2 November 1984.
Monument
The Casita del Príncipe, or Casita de Abajo, is a Neoclassical pleasure pavilion built between 1771 and 1775 to a design by Juan de Villanueva, one of the leading architects of Spanish Neoclassicism, for the then prince of Asturias, the future Charles IV, and his wife María Luisa. It was raised in an oak wood between the Monastery of El Escorial and the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial; between 1781 and 1784 the west wing was added, with the drawing room and the oval hall. Not far away stands the Casita del Infante, or de Arriba, also by Villanueva, for the Infante Gabriel de Borbón, brother of Charles IV. Declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 1931, it remained closed between 1992 and 2000 for restoration. It is managed by Patrimonio Nacional.
Monument
Also called the Casita de Arriba, it was built by Juan de Villanueva between 1771 and 1773 as a retreat for the Infante Gabriel de Borbón, son of Charles III, who was fond of chamber music; it stands on the slope of the Abantos and looks down on the monastery from above. It is a square-plan Neoclassical building in granite stone, with a portico of Ionic columns on the main façade and Italian-style gardens on descending terraces, designed so that the music could also be heard from outside. The original decoration was lost, and the present one dates from the reigns of Charles IV and Ferdinand VII, with a vault frescoed by Vicente Gómez. King Juan Carlos lived here before his marriage, and his bedroom and study are preserved; it is now under the care of Patrimonio Nacional.
Monument
Opened in 1771 to a design by the French architect Jaime Marquet and later remodelled by Juan de Villanueva, it is the oldest surviving covered theatre in Spain and the only court theatre still in use. Marquet built the three court theatres of the Royal Sites of Aranjuez, El Pardo and San Lorenzo de El Escorial between 1770 and 1778, following a model inspired by classical Italian theatre; work on the San Lorenzo theatre began in 1771 and was finished the following year, before Villanueva remodelled it between 1784 and 1789. It retains the original 18th-century fly system above the stage. Declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 1995, it was restored in 1975, saving it from demolition, and reopened in 1979.
Monument
A group of stepped platforms and seats carved into a granite outcrop, known as the Canto Gordo, at the foot of Las Machotas, within the picturesque Pinar de Abantos y la Herrería, about 2.5 kilometres from the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. According to tradition, it served Philip II as a vantage point during the building of the monastery of El Escorial (1563-1584), which can be seen from the main platform, facing north and with three seats separated by armrests. The more plausible theories suggest instead that it is a nemeton, or sacrificial altar, of Vettonian origin, given its similarities to other pre-Roman sanctuaries such as those of Ulaca or Panóias. It is one of the most visited attractions of the Royal Site, in the woods of La Herrería.
Monument
The valle de Cuelgamuros is a mountain valley on the south-eastern slope of the sierra de Guadarrama, within the municipality of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, cut into the Risco de la Nava between 1940 and 1958 on Franco's orders and built partly with the forced labour of Republican political prisoners; its cross rises more than 150 metres. The Democratic Memory Law restored this place name. With 1,365 hectares between the monte Abantos and the border with Ávila, its reforested woods of Scots pine, maritime pine and rodeno pine shelter roe deer, foxes and birds of prey. It can only be reached by the M-527 road, which leads to the Benedictine abbey set in the valley, also used by hikers and cyclists.
Nature
A picturesque site declared a protected natural area of the Community of Madrid by Royal Decree 2418 of 1961, covering 1,171 hectares split between two adjoining but clearly distinct zones: the mass of pine forest climbing the monte Abantos and the ash-tree dehesa of La Herrería, right at the foot of the monastery, in the municipalities of San Lorenzo de El Escorial and Santa María de la Alameda. It holds a significant population of Apollo and Spanish moon moth butterflies, protected by the Community of Madrid, and offers one of the best viewpoints over the Monastery of El Escorial. Within the site is the Luis Ceballos Arboretum Environmental Education Centre, with a collection of trees and shrubs native to the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, which also serves as an information centre for the monte Abantos.
Nature
The monte Abantos is one of the most important peaks of the sierra de Guadarrama, at an altitude of 1,753 metres; its western slope, mostly covered in pine forest, partly replanted, extends into the province of Ávila. It owes its name to the abanto, or Egyptian vulture, a bird once common there in the time of Philip II. Its southern slope was chosen by Philip II for the building of the Monastery of El Escorial, around which San Lorenzo de El Escorial grew up. On 21 August 1999 a fire burned 450 hectares on its eastern slope; the replanting begun in 2000 has gradually restored the pine forest. The puerto de Malagón, at 1,533 metres, is known for being a tough stage of the Vuelta Ciclista, and serves as a natural viewpoint over the Guadarrama basin and the Madrid plain.
Monument
A church at the centre of the monastic complex of El Escorial, in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, conceived as a place of commemoration for the deceased kings of Spain. The title of basilica, granted by papal prerogative, traditionally required the church to be built over the burial place of a martyr, in this case San Lorenzo, just as St Peter's Basilica in Rome stands over the tomb of the apostle. Its dome rises 95 metres above the ground, with a 17-metre diameter at the drum, and the main altarpiece, 30 metres high and commissioned in 1579, was designed by Juan de Herrera and carved in marble by Jacome da Trezzo. The monastery complex, whose construction was ordered by Philip II, was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1984.
Monument
A Renaissance library founded by Philip II, a humanist monarch and great bibliophile, who had held the idea of giving Spain a great library since 1556, although the itinerant nature of the court delayed the project until 1559, when it was decided to build it in San Lorenzo de El Escorial against the advice of counsellors who preferred a university town such as Salamanca. The first books arrived in 1565, and the following year a second consignment brought pieces of great value such as the Codex Aureus or the illustrated Apocalypse; by around 1568 the holdings already exceeded a thousand volumes. Its main hall bears a vault frescoed by Pellegrino Tibaldi and his collaborators between 1586 and 1595, with the seven liberal arts and, at the ends, Philosophy and Theology; the programme is attributed to Juan de Herrera and friar José de Sigüenza.
Monument
Circular crypt beneath the high altar built between 1617 and 1654 to a design by Juan Bautista Crescenzi and executed by Juan Gómez de Mora; it combines black marble, reddish jasper and gilt bronzes around twenty-six sarcophagi.
Curiosity
The epithet was already fixed by the end of the 16th century: around 1594 the Murcian Juan Alonso de Almela wrote a Description of the Eighth Wonder of the World devoted to the monastery, and the literary commonplace has accompanied the building ever since.
Activity
Declared a Festival of National Tourist Interest, on the second Sunday of September it gathers thousands of pilgrims in the wood of La Herrería; it starts before dawn with the rosary of the dawn and processes with decorated carts up to the hermitage.
Historical milestone
The king died at the age of seventy-one in his rooms in the monastery he had himself ordered to be raised, after weeks of agony. He had laid the building's first stone on 23 April 1563 and wished to die within sight of the high altar.