San Lorenzo de El Escorial Things to Do Tips by agarcia Top 5 Page for this destination

Reaching La Silla-III

Now you are almost there. You will notice that immediately because someone had the fabulous idea of putting a bar (a chiringuito casposo, to be more precise) beside La Silla. And that’s all. You breath a little of fresh mountain air, open your eyes to get a good glimpse of the valley and start the way back. Hope you enjoyed your trekking as I certainly did! :-D

Reaching La Silla-II

The really fun part is to get a little loose around the valley, and exploring its surroundings. If you leave the beaten path (may I say better the pavement road?), you will be rewarded with spectacular views of the valley, without suffering the traffic, noises and crowds that every popular touristy place brings with. After all, enjoying Mother Nature was your main reason for going to El Escorial, isn’t it? :-p

Reaching La Silla-I

There are plenty of indications of the many trials of the valley in the vicinity of the monastery. If you follow the map, you could get there quite easily. By the way, there are also a road, so you could get up there by car… that, obviously in case you are lazy enough as to not make an easy and joyful one hour walk. ;-)

La Silla de Felipe II

Ruling an Empire “where the sun never gets down” (the phrase is not mine, obviously), should had been an intensely stressing activity for Felipe II. During his latter years, suffering from the painful strikes of gout, he moved his residence to the Monastery. It is told that the emperor walked every day the distance between the Monastery and a promontory in the mountains that surround the valley, which has since then the name of “Silla the Felipe II” (Silla means chair). From there you could enjoy of a great view of the valley.

This is provably more fiction than reality, as the gout surely reduced considerably the mobility of the Emperor. And in case that you feel pity of the illness of Felipe II, please, remember that gout is a disease that could be easily prevented with a balanced diet. ;-)

Monasterio de El Escorial

The major attraction of the town is, undoubtedly, the huge and impressive Monastery. You could expect to find up there a LOT of people during the weekend, so if your intention was to loose your self in a charming semi-deserted village… well, you better try your luck in other place ;-)

The Monastery was built during the reign of Felipe II, at the peak of power of the once powerful Spanish Empire (nothing to do with Spain right now, you know). The building has a square shape, with tall towers in every corner. The architects pretended with that to resemble the martyrdom instrument used against Saint Lorenzo. I know you will roll your eyes in amazement when I tell you that such instrument was a Barbeque. :-()

Directions: You could not miss it. It’s the biggest building in town, and there will be hordes of tourists ;-)