el escurial
states: [spain]
category: cultural
year: 1984
location: San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Province and Autonomous Community of Madrid
region: Europe and North America
latitude/longitude: 40.5817500000, -4.1264166670
visited: 2018
Built at the end of the 16th century on a plan in the form of a grill, the instrument of the martyrdom of St Lawrence, the Escurial Monastery stands in an exceptionally beautiful site in Castile. Its austere architecture, a break with previous styles, had a considerable influence on Spanish architecture for more than half a century. It was the retreat of a mystic king and became, in the last years of Philip II's reign, the centre of the greatest political power of the time.
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