{"id":2592,"date":"2014-11-10T18:53:22","date_gmt":"2014-11-10T18:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spainexchange.com\/?p=2592"},"modified":"2026-10-09T13:49:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T13:49:22","slug":"san-lorenzo-de-el-escorial-madrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spainexchange.com\/articles\/san-lorenzo-de-el-escorial-madrid\/","title":{"rendered":"San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

A town built around a monastery<\/h2>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The town should not be confused with its neighbour El Escorial, a separate municipality further down the hill, where the railway station is.<\/p>\n

The monastery<\/h2>\n

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 fa\u00e7ade is 207 metres long. Inside are the Patio de Reyes, the basilica, the library, the royal pantheons, the palaces and the chapter houses.<\/p>\n

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 Compa\u00f1a, Casa de los Infantes y de la Reina) and the two royal lodges described below.<\/p>\n

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 \u20ac14. The reduced ticket costs \u20ac7 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What else to see<\/h2>\n