Испания Королінің тарихи резиденциясы және монастыры

Monastery and historical residence of the King of Spain

El Escorial, or the Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (lang es), or Monasterio de El Escorial (el eskoˈɾjal), is a historical residence of the King of Spain located in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, up the valley ( road distance) from the town of El Escorial and about northwest of the Spanish capital Madrid. Built between 1563 and 1584 by order of King Philip II (who reigned 1556–1598), It is one of the Spanish royal sites and functions as a monastery, basilica, royal palace, pantheon, library, museum, university, school, and hospital. El Escorial consists of two architectural complexes of great historical and cultural significance: the royal monastery itself and La Granjilla de La Fresneda, a royal hunting lodge and monastic retreat about away. These sites have a dual nature: during the 16th and 17th centuries, they were places in which the power of the Spanish monarchy and the ecclesiastical predominance of the Roman Catholic religion in Spain found a common architectural manifestation. El Escorial was both a Spanish royal palace and a monastery, although Philip II is the only monarch who ever lived in the main building. Established with a community of Hieronymite monks, it has become a monastery of the Order of Saint Augustine. Philip II engaged the Spanish architect Juan Bautista de Toledo to be his collaborator in the building of the complex at El Escorial. On 2 November 1984, UNESCO declared The Royal Seat of San Lorenzo of El Escorial a World Heritage Site. In addition, Philip envisioned El Escorial as a center for studies in aid of the Counter Reformation cause. The building's cornerstone was laid on 23 April 1563. The design and construction were overseen by Juan Bautista de Toledo, who did not live to see the completion of the project. With Toledo's death in 1567, direction passed to his apprentice, Juan de Herrera,

Since then, El Escorial has been the burial site for most of the Spanish kings of the last five centuries, Bourbons as well as Habsburgs. who, in the third century AD, was martyred by being roasted to death on a grill. St. Lawrence's feast day is 10 August, the same date as the 1557 Battle of St. Quentin. The Temple of Solomon design, if indeed it was the basis for El Escorial, was extensively modified to accommodate the additional functions Philip II intended the building to serve. Beside being a monastery, El Escorial is also a pantheon, a basilica, a convent, a school, a library, and a royal palace. Aside from its explicit purposes, the complex is also an enormous storehouse of art. In it are displayed masterworks by Titian, Tintoretto, Giambattista Castello designed the magnificent main staircase. The library contains thousands of priceless manuscripts: for example, the collection of the sultan Zidan Abu Maali, who ruled Morocco from 1603 to 1627, is housed here.

The main entrance of the El Escorial is the west façade, which has three doors: the middle one leads to the Courtyard of the Kings (Patio de los Reyes) and the side ones lead to a school and to a monastery. Above the center door is a niche where the image of Saint Lawrence has been placed. The Courtyard of the Kings owes its name to the statues of the Kings of Judah that adorn the façade of the Basílica, located at the east end of the courtyard. Steps of red marble lead to the large, public chapel, past the narthex, which is one of the highlights of the basilica. The basilica has a floor in the shape of a Greek cross and an enormous dome, inspired by St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, above the crossing. The naves are covered over by barrel vaults decorated with frescoes by Luca Giordano. The main altarpiece is high and divided into compartments of different sizes where are found bronze sculptures, and canvases painted by Tibaldi, Zuccari, and Leoni. In the sacristy, paintings such as Joseph's Coat by Velázquez, The Last Supper by Titian, and The Adoration of the Sacred Host by Charles II by Claudio Coello are on exhibit. Under the royal chapel of the Basilica is the Royal Pantheon crypt. As such, it has a long nave on the east–west axis intersected by a shorter transept, about three quarters of the way between the west entrance and the high altar. This plan was modified by Juan de Herrera to that of a Greek cross, a form with all four arms of equal length. Coincident with this shift in approach, the bell towers at the western end of the church were somewhat reduced in size and the small half dome intended to stand over the altar was replaced with a full circular dome over the center of the church, where the four arms of the Greek cross meet. Clearly Juan Bautista de Toledo's experience with the dome of St. Peter's basilica in Rome influenced the design of El Escorial's basilica. However, the Roman dome is supported by ranks of tapered Corinthian columns, with their extravagant capitals of acanthus leaves and their elaborately fluted shafts, while the dome at El Escorial, soaring nearly into the air, is supported by four heavy granite piers connected by simple Romanesque arches and decorated by simple Doric pilasters, plain, solid, and largely unprepossessing. It would not be a flight of fancy to interpret St. Peter's as the quintessential expression of Baroque sensuality and the basilica at El Escorial as a statement of the stark rigidity and grim purposefulness of the Inquisition, the two sides of the Counter Reformation. The most richly decorated part of the church is the area surrounding the high altar. Behind the altar is a three tiered reredos, or altar screen, made of red granite and jasper, nearly tall, adorned with gilded bronze statuary by Leone Leoni, and three sets of religious paintings commissioned by Philip II. To either side are gilded life size bronzes of the kneeling family groups of Charles and Philip, also by Leoni, with help from his son Pompeo. In a shallow niche at the center of the lowest level is the tabernacle, a repository for the physical elements of the communion ceremony, a so called "House of the Sacrament", designed by Juan de Herrera in jasper and bronze. It was built between 1579 and 1586 by Jacopo da Trezzo. To decorate the reredos, the king's preferences had been Michelangelo or Titian, but both of these giants were already more than eighty years old and in frail health. Consequently, Philip consulted his foreign ambassadors for recommendations, and the result was a lengthy parade of the lesser European artists of that time, all swanning through the construction site at El Escorial seeking the king's favor. One chapel exhibits the famous Crucifix carved in white marble by Benvenuto Cellini. This statue of Christ is unusual because it was represented fully nude; although for modesty it wears one cloth covering the genitals.

Situated next to the main altar of the Basilica, the residence of King Philip II consists of a series of austerely decorated rooms. It features a window from which the king could observe mass from his bed when incapacitated by the gout that afflicted him.

The gallery was originally called the King's Gallery (Galería del Rey) but came to be known as the Hall of Battles (Sala de Batallas) for its fresco paintings depicting the most important Spanish military victories. These include a medieval victory over the Moors, as well as several of Philip's campaigns against the French.

This chamber consists of twenty six marble sepulchres containing the remains of the kings and queens regnant (the only queen regnant since Philip II being Isabella II) of the Habsburg and Bourbon dynasties, from Charles I to the present, except for Philip V and Ferdinand VI. With floors and ceiling of white marble, the tomb of Prince John of Austria is especially notable. Among the more recent interments is that of Infante Alfonso in October 1992. The younger brother of King Juan Carlos I, he was buried originally in Portugal, after being killed in a still mysterious 1956 shooting at the family home in Estoril. In 1994, King Juan Carlos I signed a decree raising his cousin and close personal friend Carlos, Duke of Calabria to the status of a Spanish infante, making him eligible for interment in the Pantheon of the Princes. Upon his death in October 2015, his funeral was held at El Escorial and his body placed in the pudridero, awaiting future interment in the pantheon. Thirty seven of the sixty available niches are filled.

Consists of works of the German, Flemish, Venetian, Lombard, Ligurian and more Italian and Spanish schools from the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries.

Its eleven rooms showcase the tools, cranes and other materials used in the construction of the edifice, as well as reproductions of blueprints and documents related to the project.

Constructed at the order of Philip II, a great lover of nature, these constitute an ideal place for repose and meditation. Manuel Azaña, the Socialist who served as the last president of the Second Spanish Republic, studied in the monastery's Augustinian run school and mentions them in his Memorias (Memoirs) and his play El jardín de los frailes (The Garden of the Friars). Students at the school still use it today to study and pass the time.

The Escorial has three libraries. One is located behind the Chorus of the basilica. Another, within the monastery itself, used to be distributed to the different cells and rooms of the monks and that the Augustine monks have gradually managed to make their own. Finally, the Royal Library, which is public and exists under a special papal bull of protection. From the beginning, the Royal Library was meant to be a monumental work of art, and its execution was commissioned to prominent architects of the moment: Juan de Toledo and Juan de Herrera, who shared the king's neoplatonic views and who also designed the library's shelves. It constituted, along with the basilica, the heart of the entire project, and the project was redrafted several times to accommodate changes in the organization of the library itself. As was usual for Juan de Herrera's work, it was the most advanced of its kind in Europe. It was the first library on the continent that broke with medieval design. Domenico Fontana was inspired by Herrera's design, after a visit, for his design of the Vatican Library. During Philip II's reign, the library introduced a novel way of arranging the library's bookcases or "book presses". Until then most book presses were combined with desks and stood at right angles to the library's walls. This system was known as the "stall system" and allowed light from the library's windows to illuminate the shelves. Phillip's library began using a "wall system", placing the bookcases along the walls. Currently the library has more than 40,000 volumes, located in a great hall in length, wide, and tall, with marble floors and beautifully carved wood shelves. De Herrera and Italian construction engineer Giussep Flecha y Gamboa were careful to consider the security of the library's holdings in armarios (large bookcases), as well as their display, safeguards against fire hazards, and use of available natural lighting. This library was a Renaissance statement of power, majesty, prowess, and intellectual world leadership, designed for both the preservation of the old (binding multiple cultural histories into a single Catholic Spanish culture) and discovery of the new (imprinted by that culture). The vault of the library's ceiling is decorated with frescoes, painted by Pellegrino Tibaldi, depicting the seven liberal arts: grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. This arrangement of parallel book cases was initiated by Philip II and was called the "wall system". The first of those books were acquired in 1571 through Juan Paez de Castro. After that many books were obtained as a "peace price" during the many battles of the Spanish Empire with the Ottoman Empire. As part of his active efforts, in 1571 Philip II bought a large portion of the collection of Gonzalo Pérez, one of his advisors. This meant 57 original Greek, from Sicily, manuscripts, and 112 Latin ones, from Calabria. He also bought 315 original volumes, in Greek and Arabic, from Juan Páez de Castro's personal library. The king charged specific ambassadors with traveling through his Empire and neighboring kingdoms searching and buying the best for El Escorial's library. These ambassadors were coordinated by the head librarian, who had total authority to direct their movements, and who stayed in contact with them through all their travels. Diego Guzmán de Silva was one such ambassador and made one of the most important purchases for the library during his time in Venice: an ancient collection of Greek manuscripts and Latin codices (1569–1577). An inventory prepared in 1576 counted 4,546 volumes, over 2,000 manuscripts, and 2,500 printed books. That same year the library of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, the most valuable in Spain at the time, was bought. It included 850 codices and over 1,000 printed volumes. At this point, the size of the library was such that Benito Arias Montano had to be specially hired to organize the books and classify them by language, in addition to subject. In the 1580s the Library acquired some of its most unique pieces. Jorge Beteta donated a manuscript of the Concilios visigóticos (the Visigothic Councils) from the ninth century. Philip acquired several books from the Library of Granada, that belonged to Isabela of Castile, including her Libro the Horas of astonishing visual beauty. Other valuable libraries acquired by Philip were the library of Pedro Fajardo, and of Antonio Agustín, one of the largest in Spain at the time. Not all of those books are still in El Escorial, since many ended up in the Vatican; but around a thousand of them can still be found there. The king actively purchased rare books—often on esoteric, scientific, or theological subjects—from the East. He also collected and preserved over four hundred books prohibited by the Inquisition, which he agreed should not be available for those likely to "misunderstand" them but only to experts. By 1602, the library had a large cartographic collection and over 150 mathematical instruments. Before his death, Philip II left in his last will a pension for the Escorial Library, to ensure that it would still be able to acquire new volumes. Philip III continued his father's policy of protection and enrichment of the library, even though he was not theologically inclined. In addition to continuing the search for, and purchase of, especially valuable and old books, he promulgated a new decree, according to which the library of El Escorial ought to receive a copy of every book published inside the Empire. Of course, the orders of continuing to search for books for the library were still in place. Arias Montano donated a large number of original Hebrew manuscripts, and Admiral Luis Fajardo brought back the complete Zaydani library captured during his wars with the Sultan Muley Zidán. The library reached its peak under Philip IV. In 1671 a great fire destroyed 5280 codices; the main hall, in which the printed books were kept, was saved. Among the most important losses were the Concilios visigóticos and the Historia natural de las Indias (Natural History of the Indies), a 19 volume encyclopedia on biology and botany by Francisco Hernández de Toledo. After the fire, the priest Antonio de San José spent over 25 years reclassifying and taking inventories of the surviving copies. His list of surviving books counted 45,000. Shortly after, as the Habsburg dynasty came to its end and the Bourbons took the throne after the War of the Spanish Succession, a further loss took place, as the Bourbon kings reversed the trend of acquiring books for the library and instead proceeded to take books to send to France or to their own libraries. Currently, the library has over 40,000 volumes. The library includes many important illuminated manuscripts, such as the Ottonian Golden Gospels of Henry III (1045–46). The only known copy of the Kitab al I'tibar, a 12th century Syrian autobiography, was discovered there in the 19th century.

Following a rule approved by the Council of Trent dealing with the veneration of saints, Philip II donated to the monastery one of the largest reliquaries in all of Catholic Christendom. The collection consists of some 7,500 relics, which are stored in 570 sculpted reliquaries

Juan de Herrera also designed the Casas de Oficios (Official Buildings) opposite the monastery's north façade; and his successor, Francisco de Mora, designed the Casa de la Compaña (Company Quarters).