El Escorial

Hi :D So yeah, has been awhile. We excursioned to El Escorial on Friday, then there was literally an hour between when our bus got back and when I had to catch my bus from Segovia to Madrid, and then I was in Santiago until Sunday, and then I had a sizeable project due Tuesday...so yeah. I apologize, and prepare yourselves for a nice long post! (EDIT: Okay, it's gotten to the point of ridiculous, so I'm going to break it into parts so it's not quite so much at once. Parte Uno!)

So, El Escorial. It's really close to Madrid and is the largest building in all of Spain. It's a palace. And a basilica. And a library. And a museum. And a monastery. Is kinda crazy, but also pretty cool. The overall shape of El Escorial is a grille, in reference to San Lorenzo who was apparently matyred that way. This is because Felipe II's first major battle was won on San Lorenzo's feast day, so he's like the patron of El Escorial, and the little town where it's located is named for him. The unfortunate thing about El Escorial is that they wouldn't let us take any pictures inside :( So I have a couple of pictures outside, but really not much.

So, first we went through the museum of tapestries. Spain has like the best collection of them, by quality (preservation) and quantity. One interesting thing is that they were originally woven with strands of gold, and would pull out those strands when they needed it...so there are sorta blank spots in most of the tapestries now. There were also some paintings in the same area...no idea why. There was one by El Greco, and it was super huge! It was neat to see, because in class we never saw anything bigger than what was projected onto the chalkboard :)

Next was the museum of architecture. There was a tiny scale model of El Escorial, which was pretty awesome. It also showed a lot of the tools that had been used to build El Escorial, which was built all super fast for its time. Overall, it wasn't super exciting, and we didn't stay long. We quickly passed through another set of paintings, but nothing too interesting.

Next, we saw the palace section of El Escorial. What's really neat about the living quarters for the King and Queen is that they both have windows that go right to the basilica--which came in handy when Felipe II got really sick and was bedridden for awhile. And there were of course, bunches of cool paintings everywhere.

Next we ventured up some stairs to the Room of the Battles, names so for the two giant murals on either wall that portray battle scenes. The murals are painted to look like tapestries, and at the doorways are all wrinkle from being pulled back. It looks really cool. The room is really long and skinny, with one wall featuring one of the battles where the Christians pushed back the Muslims in their conquest, and the other one facing it featuring Felipe's first victory over the French.

After that, we went down and saw the tombs of all the Kings and Queens (well, since some of them had more than one, only the Queen to bear the next heir got to be burried in the special area) since Felipe's father Carlos something or other (which, it turns out, what the whole original point of building El Escorial--a resting place for Felipe's dad), with the exception of Fernando V (I think?), who was buried elsewhere with his wife--he's also the only King to sleep with his wife. There were only two empty ones there, which are slated to go to the current King Juan Carlos I's parents, who he believes should've been King and Queen, but Franco beat them out of it. Where will Juan Carlos and his Queen be buried when they die? No one knows (well, probably Juan Carlos and his Queen)--being buried in El Escorial isn't a requirement though. After that first mystical chamber, we went up some steps to the other burial area, for all the wives who didn't produce heirs and all the kids who didn't become King for whatever reason (brothers, sisters, heirs that died prematurely). There was this one giant cake looking tomb that held a bunch of bitties that had died, and their tombs were all tiny :(

Next stop, the Basilica! In the entranceway there's a dome, but it's flat. When the second architect was auditioning to become the architect, he built the flat down with a paper column in the middle to give the appearance of holding up the ceiling. Then he invited the King to see what he had created, and the King was unimpressed. So he took out his sword and cut through the column and the King freaked out. The ceiling didn't fall or anything though, so he got the job! The basilica was super pretty, but we unfortunately didn't get to stay long. By this time a lot of people were getting grumpy and bored, but it was soooo beautiful!! I love giant pretty churches :D

Our final stop was the library. It was a long skinny hall with bookshelves on the side, and they were all super old! They have a few on display, but I couldn't read anything. There were also a bunch of globes and other map like objects along the center of the hall, and it was really neat to see the drawings of the world from the 16th century and such.

Finally, our trip ended, much to the relief of many of my classmates. We all went and ate lunch in town, which wasn't super exciting. What was really cool was listening to two of my classmates talking, because they came from Spanish backgrounds. I swear, every couple of words, they switched languages! It was kinda hard to follow and I think if I'd tried for any length of time I'd have gone crazy, but it was really cool.

Next stop was the Valley of the Fallen. This is a highly controversial monument and was closed until a couple of years ago. The only way we were allowed in is because Elena told the gate people we were there to pray (the only excuse to visit). You see, it was build by Franco after the Civil War by the Republican prisoners (who had lost to the Nationalists) to be a giant basilica (I think? Maybe it's just a church...a mighty impressive one though!) where all those who had fallen in the war were buried, and he eventually was also buried there. Currently, the Republicans have power, and a lot of people are really upset about it and think it should be destroyed. There was a terrorist bombing in there at one point too--like I said, hugely controversial. However, for all that, it was absolutely beautiful. It's carved right into the mountain, and that giant cross I saw on my first bus ride to Segovia stands above it. It was so tall and majestic--very awe-inspiring.

After we got back, I had literally one hour between the getting off the bus at the Aqueduct and when my bus to Madrid left--so I booked it home. I had packed everything the night before, so all I had to do was grab it and some snacks from my madre and I was good to go!