When thinking over my experiences in Madrid the one that really stood out to me was El Escorial. Over the weekend of the third week on Saturday I took a day trip to El Escorial which is located outside of the city so I took a train for 1 hour to reach it. In the city the main touristic site is called Monasterio de El Escorial. It functions as a monastery, royal palace, museum, pantheon, basilica, convent, library and school. It has beautiful architecture because one of the architects designing it worked on the basilica of St. Peter’s and the floor plan actually resembles a grill and their emblem is actually a grill that in engraved on many items in the palace. What I found most interesting was the pantheon that hosts the Spanish Royal Family, which is covered in bronze, and gold marble for the original chambers and the extension is covered in white marble, which was all very grand. They also have a garden, which was my favorite part that has a view of the surrounding village and mountains with beautiful cut hedges, flowers and fountains. El Escorial is often considered the “Versailles” of Spain, which is a perfect depiction. They have a mass collection of countless artwork and books, the architecture plans, display of the living areas of the palace, chapel and tomb chambers. The library is definitely something to be mentioned because the study has paintings all over the ceilings and interesting objects portrayed on the center table with globe’s that were drawn before modern drawings and trinkets. The collection of books are actually turned the other way and the names written on that side instead of showing the spine of the book. The skill that went to building all of the things mentioned was just breath taking, it is quit a sight to see.
