"Escorial Monastery and the Valley of the... " a Madrid Travel Page by jorgejuansanchez

In Spain we say “De Madrid al Cielo” (Crazy about Madrid) because no other Spanish town has so much to offer in terms of art, outstanding theatres, gastronomy, nightlife, etc. (Please, read it by listening the theme song “Entre dos aguas” by guitarist Paco de Lucia).

Madrid is a relatively new city, founded in 1561 as the capital of the then greatest Empire of the world where the sun never set, by our Hapsburg King Felipe II.
In Madrid you can visit one of the three best and richest museums of the world: El Prado (the other two being Louvre in Paris and Hermitage in Saint Petersburg). But this is not all! Just in front of El Prado you will find two more magnificent museums: Thyssen Bornemisza, with hundreds of French impressionists and old Italians masters, among many other painters, and Reina Sofia Museum, with Spanish artists from the XVIII to the XX centuries, such as Picasso, Dali, Miro, Juan Gris, Rusinol, Zuloaga, Chillida, etc. (Salvador Dali donated all his better and most well known paintings to the Spanish Government. Famous Picasso's Guernica is also in this museum). This triangular area is internationally recognized as the greatest cultural concentration of art in the world. You will get crazy about Madrid; the city that will enthral you and you will feel in the seventh heaven, never wishing to go back to your country. Furthermore, since the first day you will be considered a "madrileno", because Madrid people are the most open minded and extroverted in Spain. It is very easy to make friends there, even foreigners without any knowledge of Spanish. Take into account that half of the more than 3 millions inhabitants of Madrid are either foreigners or from other Spanish regions, such as Andalucia, Asturias, Catalonia, Extremadura, Aragon, etc. Madrid has the best Metro in Spain, with more than 10 lines, and the airport is reached for just 1 euro (or less if you buy a 10 trips ticket card). One of the lines goes round the town, like in Moscow. Since Madrid is geographically positioned in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, it is very convenient for travelling to any Spanish city, to Sevilla, Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao, etc. All Spaniards are very proud of our beautiful capital.

Madrid has three emblematic symbols: EL OSO Y EL MADRONO (The Bear and the Strawberry Tree, or “ericaceae arbutus”), a lovely metallic statue in the central Square Puerta del Sol. PUERTA DE ALCALA is a kind of Arch of Triumph erected by Sicilian artist Francesco Sabatini in the XVIII century. The third symbol is the fountain CIBELES, a Phrygian Goddess representing the fertility. The Royal Palace is an exquisite marvel. It was burned down in 1734 and reconstructed by Italian artists in notorious French style, reminding Versailles (our King then was Felipe de Anjou, grandson of the French King Louis XIV). Today this Palace is a museum. In its dinning room celebrate banquets offered to foreign Presidents, Kings, Ministers, etc. Our present King lives in the Zarzuela Palace, in the outskirts of Madrid.
In El Prado Museum you will admire thousands of incredibly beautiful paintings by the greatest masters of the world: Velazquez, Goya, Fra Angelico, Rafael, Botticelli, Durero, Cranach, Rubens, Pieter Brueghel, etc.

From Madrid you can make one day excursions to many interesting places, such as old TOLEDO, an exceptionally rich city in history and art, where every building is a museum. It deserves a special and prolonged visit. CHINCHON is a most original small village. In its central narrow streets you will find an exotic bull fighting arena (do not forget to drink the famous Chinchon "anis"). ALCALA DE HENARES has one of the oldest Universities in Spain and the house/museum where Miguel de Cervantes was born. SEGOVIA, with its Roman Aqueduct, the impressive Gothic Cathedral, and its stunning fairy tale Alcazar (castle), constitutes another unmatched choice. And still the hanged houses of CUENCA, walled AVILA, SALAMANCA and its beautiful Plaza Mayor, TOBOSO with Dulcinea charming house and the Windmills along the Quixote Route, etc.

SANTA CRUZ DEL VALLE DE LOS CAIDOS (The Valley of the Fallen). The cross of this monument, made on granite, which height is 150 metres, and the four statues representing the four Evangelists, is a grandiose masterpiece. Inside there is a Basilica of 300 metres long constructed in pure granite inside a hill of rock, sanctified by the Pope John XXIII, and an old Benedictine active monastery surrounded by a magnificent nature in the middle of a beautiful valley. It is a contemporary colossal work, better appreciated when the hatred created by the Spanish Civil War (from 1936 to 1939), which is still alive in some of our Spanish politics, will disappear forever, and the neutral people will admire it without political prejudices.
Nobody doubts that in the future the Valley of the Fallen will be considered a marvel of the world as well as the Monastery of El Escorial.
Today is a memorial and a cemetery devoted to the fallen during our civil war from 1936 to 1939, republicans and nationals together, without difference of ideology.
I advice you to visit the Valley of the Fallen as soon as possible, because politics are worst than children, and the present Spanish government now is threating to destroy this beautiful basilica and cross and transform it into a thematic park against the regime of Franco, which they believe was worst than the one that would have been established by the communists, directed by the Soviet Union, if the republicans had won the Spanish Civil War.
You can get there from Madrid by bus (less than one hour), or from the nearby Monastery of El Escorial.

The Monastery/Palace El Escorial is located at just 1 hour by bus or train from Madrid. It was erected in the XVI century by order of our King Felipe II, when he moved the capital of Spain from Toledo to Madrid, and holds the mausoleum of most of our Hapsburg and Bourbon kings. Inside there is a museum called the second El Prado for the quality of its paintings, an enormous basilica looking like Saint Peter’s in Rome, the second most important Bibliotheca in the world in ancient books (only after Vatican's) with thousands of old manuscripts, rare and precious books, illuminated Books of Hours, etc., and still other marvels like the miniatures of the Gallery of the Battles, where four Italian artists worked during eleven years. Because of these riches plus its hundreds of ancient tapestries made with silk and golden threads, its immeasurable quantity of frescoes, its sculptures from Pompeo Leoni to Benvenuto Cellini, ancient maps, and a massive quantity of other startling treasures, many consider El Escorial the Eight Wonder of the World.