For my building I chose to do the building, El Escorial. This building is in San Lorenzo Del Escorial, Spain. It was built in the late 1500’s during the Spanish Golden Age. The King of Spain lived in El Escorial. The King of Spain at the time was Phillip II. El Escorial is about 31 miles away from Madrid, and by the Guadarrama Mountains.
Two architects designed El Escorial. Their names were Juan Bautista de Toledo and Juan de Herrera. Toledo made the plans, and Herrera completed the building. It took a long time for El Escorial to be built. The building was mostly finished in 1584, but was completely finished in the late 1590’s.
This building has had many purposes. The first thing it was designed for was to be a monastery for the monks. Other things it has been are a palace, library, and a mausoleum. El Escorial has many sections within it. There’s a library, basilica, royal pantheon, and gardens. The artwork that was in El Escorial is now in the Prado Museum. “The Garden of Earthly Delights”, which was painted by Bosch, used to be hung in Phillip II’s bedroom.
The main Façade is the first thing someone would see at El Escorial. There are three doors to choose from. The doors lead to the Courtyard of Kings, a school, and the monastery. In the courtyard, there are statues of the Kings of Judah. The Basilica is by the courtyard. The Basilica’s floor was inspired by St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The chapel is very pretty as well. There are red marble steps that lead up to it, and the altarpiece is about 30 meters tall.
Today, El Escorial is a tourist attraction. Many people come to visit this building. According to records, there were more than 500,000 people that came to visit El Escorial. UNESCO made El Escorial a world heritage site. Someday I would like to visit this beautiful building.
Comments