Continuing our journey north the
next campsite we stopped at was El Escorial a splendid ASCI site close to
Madrid.
Our first visit in this area was
to the Monastry/Palace of El Escorial which was built by Felipe 11 in the 16th
C. It is rather an austere building and
it is very cold inside. Most of the
rooms are quite plain, with the exception of a few. The first part of the visit
takes you through a museum of art with Flemish, Italian and Psanish paintings. The Royal Pantheon, a marble mausoleum, contains
the funerary urns of the Spanish Monarchs together with numerous rooms full of
the coffins of the Royal families – all these sarcophagibegan to depress Rob so
he was quite relieved to return to ground level and take in the beautiful
fresco above the main staircase. From here the visit took us into the Basilica
which has an ornate alterpiece and then across the courtyard to an amazing
library with16thC ceiling frescoes. It
holds over 40,000 books, many of these are open displaying their intricate
illustrations.
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