Monastery and Real Sitio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial

El Escorial was the political centre of the Empire of Philip II, where he built his palace, his library, his pantheon, the one of his parents (Charles V and Elizabeth of Portugal) and of the members of his family and his successors as well as a great basilica and where he founded a monastery. The architectural complex (which was finished in 1562) is situated at about 50 kilometres from the capital, in the Sierra de Guadarrama, and was declared World Heritage in 1984.

Philip II governed the Empire where the sun never set from this little place in the mountains. Affected by the death of his father Charles V in 1558 and with the purpose to affirm the House of Austria in Spain, he ordered the construction of the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial to guarantee the everlasting memory of his family, and he founded a dynastic Pantheon, and  to compensate the destruction of a church dedicated to San Lorenzo during the battle of San Quintin, in France.

The complex, oriented towards Abantos and with a facade of 207 meters long, is situated within a rectangle of 33.000 square meters, its base having the structure of a reversed grid. The main facade receives the visitor with its imposing construction, giving way to the Patio of the Kings, which receives its name because of the statues of the Kings of Juda that adorn the facade of the Basilica.  This is exactly one of the parts within the architectural complex that must be visited. The Basilica is of a square base and crowned by a cupula which is inspired by the Saint Peter of the Vatican, and has a total of 43 altars and chapels.

The Royal Pantheons are situated underneath the Royal Chapel of the Basilica; 26 tombs of black marble which contain the rests of the kings of the Houses of Austria and Bourbon, and the Pantheon of the Infants with the tombs of the queens who died without coronated offspring, princes and infants.

The Museum of Architecture is situated in the Vaulted Floor in the basement of the Monastery, with reproductions of the plans used for its construction, tools which were used and the cost of the construction; also, the Gallery with works of El Greco, Zurbaran, Ribera, Tintoretto, Tiziano, Rubens or Verones.

Benedictine Abbey of the Holy Cross of the Valley of the Fallen (Abadia Benedictina de la Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caidos)

The Benedictine Abbey of the Holy Cross of the Valley of the Fallen is situated in the Sierra de Guadarrama at only 8 kilometres from El Escorial. This colossal construction formed by the Abbey and other buildings like the library or the hospederia is situated on an esplanade of 30.600 square meters, together with the crypt excavated into the mountain and an immense cross of 150 meters high, which can be reached by a hidden funicular. Inside the crypt, the tombs of Francisco Franco and Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera can be found and hidden from the public, the tombs of 40.000 soldiers fallen during the Civil War.