El Escorial

    Its history is just as impressive. Built to honor San Lorenzo (St. Lawrence) after having defeated the French on that day (August 10th, 1557), King Philip II charged his scholars to find a place to build it. This happened to be a plateau where a poor small village lay. Five years later construction began, and the town and the Castle/monastery has undergone many political and demographic changes; beginning with the ruling that the town was given the title of Villa and was carved out of the jurisdiction of Segovia, to which it belonged.

    El Escorial was built with the idea to maintain the simetry and austerity, while showing forth might and power of the crown of Spain under divine guidance. At the entrance of the Patio of the Kings, the antechamber of eternity, sculptures of the Kings of Judea who brought Israel back to the service of God preside in a majestic reminder.