El Escorial, Spain

"The eighth wonder of the world" or "architectural nightmare" is located not far from Madrid . If you have not guessed it, it's about the Escorial - the monastery-palace of the King of Spain, Philip II. To get to this famous monastery you need to come to the town with the consonant name El Escorial. Let's get acquainted with this magnificent and very interesting place.

Attractions of El Escorial

Many tourists go to Madrid only to visit this magnificent palace, which gathered a huge amount of historical values.

1. Tombs. In the mausoleum of the Escorial you can see the remains of very famous historical figures. These include: all the kings of Spain, starting with Charles V (exception is only Philip V), the queen - the mother of the heirs, and princes and princesses of the XIX century, whose children could not inherit the throne. In the mausoleum of the Escorial you can find even the burial of Don Juan Bourbon, the father of King Juan Carlos of Spain.
2. The main cathedral of the monastery. These halls are worth a visit, at least for the sake of seeing the artfully painted ceiling and masterfully applied murals. In the cathedral there are 43 altars, for decoration of which, many Spanish and Italian masters have put their hand. Such masterpieces of art as those near these altars can not be seen anywhere else! Speaking about the cathedral, I would very much like to add the words of Theophilus Gautier, who said: " In the Escorial Cathedral you feel so stunned, so overwhelmed, so subject to melancholy and depressed by unbending strength that prayer seems completely useless ."
3. Library. The content of the local library allows you to compare e with the Vatican. There are nowhere else on earth where there are so many book rarities. There are manuscripts of St. Augustine, Alphonse Wise, St. Theresa, as well as many Arabic manuscripts and cartography works dating back to the Middle Ages. By the way, in order to keep jewelry on the bindings, in this library, many of the books stand with rootlets inside. And Pope Gregory XIII ordered that everyone who dares to steal a book from this library should be excommunicated. In addition to books located here, it is also worth looking at the design of the room, and more specifically, the ceiling. The painting of this ceiling was made by Tibaldi and his daughter. They made a ceiling that symbolized the seven sciences: dialectics, rhetoric, grammar, astronomy, arithmetic, music and geometry. And for theology and philosophy were completely dedicated to the end walls of the library.
4. "The tower of Philip". Once it was from this place that the King observed the construction of the Escorial. Climb there, and tourists, because it is from here that the palace is made in the form of a grate on which the Holy Martyr Laurence, who is considered the patron of all the Escorial, was burned.
5. The museum. Not without him in the palace of the Escorial. There are two of them at once. In one of them you can get a close look at the history of the construction of the Escorial. See sketches, drawings, drawings and graphics. But the second museum is completely devoted to the works of great and famous masters of the XV-XVII centuries. Among the paintings can be found work of Bosch, Titian, Veronese and many other unique personalities.

Working hours of El Escorial

To get to this interesting place and not to go to waste, we want to tell you the opening hours of the Escorial. It is open to visitors from 10am to 5pm, 6 days a week, except Monday. The entrance costs about 5 euros. While calculating time for a trip, take into account the dimensions of this place, and adjust yourself to the fact that on this tour you will spend at least 3 hours.