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Royal Site
El Escorial
The Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial is the monument that best sums up the ideological and cultural aspirations of the Spanish "Golden Age", expressed here through an original synthesis of Italian and Flemish aesthetic forms built at the initiative of Philip II.
View on the Patrimonio Nacional websiteCombining several functions in a single building, San Lorenzo el Real was initially a monastery of the Order of Saint Jerome, whose church would serve as the mausoleum of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his wife, Isabella of Portugal, as well as his son Philip II, his relatives and successors, and where the monks would pray uninterruptedly for the souls of the royals. A palace was also built there to house the king, as patron of the foundation, and his entourage. The college and the seminary completed the Monastery's religious function, and a Library was established to serve these three centres. This plan is still in place today, to some extent. The figure of Charles V was crucial to the establishment of this Royal Site, given his considerable influence on his son’s spirit, with the example of his last years spent among the monks of the Order of Saint Jerome of Yuste, and the need to provide him with a fitting burial place.