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SAN LORENZO DEL ESCORIAL
View of the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial © Hugo Fernández – Community of Madrid
San Lorenzo de El Escorial
World Heritage and living nature of Madrid
Words: Editorial Staff
Photography: Comunidad de Madrid
At just forty-five minutes from Madrid’s bustle, San
Lorenzo de El Escorial rises among the moun-
tains like a refuge of stone and silence. From
afar, the great mass of the Royal Monastery
seems to guard the Sierra de Guadarrama, a symbol of a
Spain where art, history and landscape still converse. It was
Casita del Infante © Mercedes Blanco
considered in its time the eighth wonder of the world, and
one only needs to pause before its granite façade to un-
derstand why. Its architecture —solid, austere, dazzling—
embodies the grandeur of an empire that found its style in
restraint.
But El Escorial is not only monumental heritage. It is also a
green lung, a destination where nature blends effortlessly
with culture. Around the monastery stretches the Bosque
de La Herrería, declared a Picturesque Landscape. Its cen-
turies-old holm oaks and ash trees accompany the walker
along a route that ends at the Silla de Felipe II, the viewpoint
from which the monarch watched the progress of the works.
From there, the horizon opens into a mosaic of hills and
valleys that shift their colours with the seasons: from ochre
to green, from the clear winter blue to the golden tones of
summer sunsets.
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