El Escorial

Madrid City | El Escorial | Aranjuez | Chinchon

I suspect that, in its day, El Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial may have been considered with a similar combination of awe and disdain as Versailles, Schönbrunn in their time or even the Burj al Arab is today. An unnecessary flaunting of wealth, in each case derived from the exploitation of those less fortunate, and in the case of El Escorial at least, enough to almost bankrupt the entire nation. Despite its rather austere granite exterior, which I suspect will continue to weather rather better than its modern day Arab equivalent, inside it is as opulent as any palace anywhere. From a distance it appears to sit comfortably, proportionately at the foot of the Navacerrada. It is only when you get close that you realise just how big it is, I mean, really big…even the limited amount you are allowed to visit, though not photograph. Fortunately there is little they can do to prevent you from photographing the exterior and the gardens, privet hedges I remember from forty years or more ago, a memory perhaps reinforced by similar scents from our own garden. As I grow older, I have started to look at each place I visit as a potential home in my old age. El Escorial is a rather pleasant town, with a somewhat more moderate climate than much of Castile, well known for nueve meses de invierno tres meses de infierno. This combined with its other assets made it seem a likely candidate for retirement, until I realised that every Madrileňo has the same idea, so not only hideously inflated property prices, but an ambience akin to an old peoples’ home.