San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid
San Lorenzo de El Escorial is a town in the Sierra de Guadarrama, on the slope of Mount Abantos, about 50 kilometres from Madrid. It grew up around the monastery that Philip II built in the 16th century, and it is one of the most popular day trips from the capital. This post describes the town, what to see besides the monastery, and how to get there and what it costs in 2026.
A town built around a monastery
According to the Madrid tourist board, the area was a small farming village until Philip II chose it for his monastery after making Madrid the seat of the court in 1561. The workers who came to build it turned the village into a town, with traders, craftsmen, a town hall, a hospital and houses for the nobles who wanted to live near the king. Two centuries later, Charles III approved a planned new town, laid out by Juan de Esteban and Juan de Villanueva.
The royal family left El Escorial as an official residence after the French invasion of 1808, and the town declined. It recovered in the middle of the 19th century, when the railway arrived and Crown lands were sold, and the new middle classes built hotels and summer houses here.
The town should not be confused with its neighbour El Escorial, a separate municipality further down the hill, where the railway station is.
The monastery
The Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial was begun in 1563 by the architect Juan Bautista de Toledo. After his death in 1567 his pupil Juan de Herrera continued the work until it was finished in 1584, and gave the building its plain, geometric style. The main façade is 207 metres long. Inside are the Patio de Reyes, the basilica, the library, the royal pantheons, the palaces and the chapter houses.
UNESCO placed the monastery and site of El Escorial on the World Heritage List on 2 November 1984. The listed area includes the monastery and its gardens, the service buildings opposite it (Casas de Oficios, Casa de la Compaña, Casa de los Infantes y de la Reina) and the two royal lodges described below.
In 2026 the monastery is open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm in winter (October to March) and to 7:00 pm in summer (April to September). It is closed on Mondays. The ticket office and the entrance close one hour and fifteen minutes before closing time. The standard ticket costs €14. The reduced ticket costs €7 and applies to visitors aged 5 to 16, people aged 65 and over and students up to 25 years old with a valid student card. The basilica does not need a ticket and is closed during services. A guided tour in English starts at 10:45 am and lasts about two hours. The monastery has its own post: El Escorial, the Perpetual Home for the Catholic Crown of Spain.
What else to see
- Casita del Príncipe. A neoclassical lodge built between 1771 and 1775 to a design by Juan de Villanueva for the future Charles IV, then Prince of Asturias. It stands in an oak wood between the monastery and the neighbouring town, with formal gardens and a large park around it.
- Casita del Infante. Also designed by Villanueva, in 1771, for the Infante Gabriel de Borbón, a son of Charles III who was fond of music. It is in the Herrería estate, west of the monastery, and its terraced gardens look out over the monastery.
- Real Coliseo Carlos III. A court theatre at Calle Floridablanca, 20, designed by the French architect Jaime Marquet. Building started in 1770 and was almost finished in May 1771. It closed in 1967, was restored between 1974 and 1979, and has been a listed monument since 1995. The Madrid region has run its programme since 1985.
- La Herrería and the Silla de Felipe II. La Herrería is a forest of 497 hectares below the town, owned by Patrimonio Nacional. A signposted walk of 7 km (there and back) leads from the tourist office to the Silla de Felipe II, a seat cut into the rock from which, according to tradition, the king watched the building of the monastery. A longer circular route of 8.6 km takes in the chestnut wood of El Castañar.
- Valle de Cuelgamuros. The Civil War monument formerly called the Valle de los Caídos is in the same municipality, 9.5 km north of the monastery. See the separate post on the Valle de Cuelgamuros.
How to get there
- By bus: lines 661 and 664 run from the Moncloa interchange in Madrid to the bus station of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, at Calle Juan de Toledo, 5. The Madrid tourist board gives a journey time of 50 minutes.
- By train: Cercanías line C-3a runs from Aranjuez through Atocha, Sol and Chamartín to El Escorial. The journey takes 60 minutes from Atocha or 45 minutes from Chamartín. The station is in the neighbouring town of El Escorial; local bus L1 connects it with San Lorenzo.
- By car: about 45 minutes by the A-6, the AP-6 and the M-600.
The town tourist office is at Calle Grimaldi, 4, a few steps from the monastery.
For students
San Lorenzo de El Escorial is a university town on a small scale. The Real Centro Universitario Escorial-María Cristina, housed in the Casa de la Compaña next to the monastery, is linked to the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and summer courses (Cursos de Verano) have been held in the town since 1988. For students based in the capital it is an easy day out, and a student card halves the price of the monastery ticket.
Other excursions from the capital are described in the post on the Sierra de Guadarrama, and schools and courses are listed on the Madrid city page.
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