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Built between 1563 and 1584 by order of King Philip II (who reigned 1556–1598), El Escorial is the largest Renaissance building in the world. It is one of the Spanish royal sites and functions as a monastery, basilica, royal palace, pantheon, library, museum, university, school, and hospital.
- 1984 (8th session)
- Europe and North America
3 days ago · Philip II (born May 21, 1527, Valladolid, Spain—died September 13, 1598, El Escorial) was the king of the Spaniards (1556–98) and king of the Portuguese (as Philip I, 1580–98), champion of the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation.
Construction started in 1563 after King Philip II of Spain decided to commission a funerary monument for his father, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. But Philip II desired an even more complicated structure that would also function as a palace and monastery.
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Built at the end of the 16th century, the Escurial Monastery stands in an exceptionally beautiful site at the foothills of the Sierra de Guadarrama, north of Madrid. It was the retreat of a mystic king, Philip II, and became in the last years of 'his reign the centre of the greatest political power of the time.
Philip finished building the royal palace El Escorial in 1584. Deeply devout, Philip saw himself as the defender of Catholic Europe against the Ottoman Empire and the Protestant Reformation. In 1584, Philip signed the Treaty of Joinville funding the French Catholic League over the following decade in its civil war against the French Huguenots.
- 16 January 1556 – 13 September 1598
- Isabella of Portugal
Dec 6, 2023 · El Escorial, begun 1563, near Madrid, Spain (photo: Vvlacenko, CC BY-SA 3.0) Titian, Portrait of Philip II, 1551, oil on canvas, 193 x 111 cm (Museo del Prado) Located near Madrid, San Lorenzo de El Escorial is an imposing architectural complex that is arguably the most ambitious monument constructed during the Renaissance in Spain.
This bedrock study of Spanish architectural history established El Escorial and the era of Philip II as the summa of Spanish architectural design. The author was an official of the Royal Academy of History and the editor one of the founders of art history in Spain as well as member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
