El Escorial

This past weekend I made a spur of the moment trip to El Escorial. My friend Syd had been talking about possibly going this weekend but as of Friday night/Saturday morning at 1 am (I fb messaged her at 6 pm just to see if she was still thinking about going) I still hadn’t heard a definitive response from her so I went to bed. I woke up the next day at 10:45 am and checked my fb messages only to find one that said we were going to take the 11:49 train to El Escorial!

I needed to shower because I hadn’t the day before and I had to make a transfer and hit 10 metro stops to get to the right train station so I was pretty frazzled and didn’t think I would make it. All of us ended up being pretty late and we actually had to run to catch the train and we made it in the last second. It was pretty epic and it got the blood pumping pretty early in the morning.

It ended up just being Syd, Marshall and me even though Syd had invited a bunch of their church friends. No one wanted to get up that early on a Saturday.

Syd and I had learned about El Escorial in our Art History Class so we were really excited to see it. Some fun fact’s about El Escorial: It has six functions: it is a monastery, boy’s school, basilica, library, palace and royal pantheon. It was commissioned by Phillip II to support the Counter Reformation and was designed by Juan Herrera so it is built in the Herrerian Style. Herrerian Style has beauty in it’s austerity. There are no ornate decorations.

So anyways we got there pretty easily on the train. It was only about an hour ride. Once there we just had to find the building. There were fortunately signs everywhere but unfortunately we had to climb a steady uphill to get there. It was like the endless uphill. Marshall, who is the most uncomplaining person I know, was even saying how it seemed like it would never end.

            Finally we made it and I think we were all in awe of it’s size. It was enormous, so much bigger than any of us expected and I finally understood what Herrerian Style was after I saw it too.

Some of El Escorial, even the panoramic couldn't get it all

Courtyard in El Escorial

So I don’t really have many pictures from the inside because picture taking was pretty much forbidden in every room. The one room I was allowed to take pictures in was the Hall of Battles that commemorates every Spanish military victory, by land or by sea. The Hall was amazing, it was covered from wall to ceiling with paintings of the Battle’s and it was quite memorizing. I could probably come back to that room daily for my entire life and find something new each time.

            My favorite room by far was the Royal Pantheon, which is where all of the kings and the wives that bore the next king were buried since Phillip II. It was super crazy ornate, everything was black marble and gold with a giant crystal chandelier. It was so pretty. Of course we couldn’t take any pictures. Sad.

      

Hall of Battles

   There was also some amazing works of art in the museum. They had an original El Greco (“The Martyrdom of St. Maurice”) which is considered one of his greatest works. The work was commissioned by Phillip II for the main altar at El Escorial but the work ended up being too complex for the laypeople to understand so he lost the job.

A work by Bosch, the guy who painted the Garden of Earthly Delights, this is the only pic I got of any paintings

Right before the next group that tried to take pics here got busted. Haha

Next we went the Basillica. It was very pretty on the inside and also huge. No suprise there. The best part was the giant altarpiece and the two sculptures that faced the altarpieces of Phillip II and his family. I got one picture of the altarpiece from outsite the Basilica (photos werent allowed) and I couldn't sneak one of the sculpture.

Entrance to the Basillica

Altar Piece, so so pretty

Then we ventured out into the Royal Gardens. These were not originally added by Phillip II (remember he like the austerity) and they were added later by the Bourbon Dynasty from France. You can almost tell they do not belong because they are so much fancier than everything else at El Escorial. We happened to be there on a really pretty day so the scenery and view was amazing. Spain never ceases to suprise me with how beautiful it is. Something I can't believe what I'm seeing is actually real.

So pretty, I can't believe I actually took this pic

Syd and I

All in All, I'm super glad we decided to go randomly. El Escorial was very pretty and it was such an easy trip. Also, since Syd, Marshall and I all have Abono Passes (madrid metro unlimited monthly passes) the first half (getting to El Escorial) was free. So it barely cost anything, just the 5 euro entry fee and the 1.50 euro trip back. Totally worth every euro penny.