El Escorial Palace
The Royal Pantheon of Spain's
El Escorial Palace, an hour northwest of Madrid, is the gilded resting place
of 26 kings and queens…four centuries' worth of Spanish monarchy.
All the kings are included — but only those queens who became mothers
of kings.
There is a post-mortem filing system at work here. The first and greatest, Charles V and his Queen Isabella, flank the altar on the top shelf. Her son, Philip II, rests below Charles and opposite to (only) one of Phillip's four wives, and so on. There is a waiting process, too. Before a royal corpse can rest in this room, it needs to decompose for several decades. The three empty niches are already booked. The bones of Juan Carlos' grandparents, Alfonso XIII and Victoria Eugenia (who died in 1941 and 1964, respectively) are just about ready to be moved in. Juan Carlos' father, Don Juan (who died in 1993), is also on the wait list. But where does that leave Juan Carlos? Or his mom? This hotel is todo completo.
The paintings which line El Escorial's walls provide an instructive peek at the consequences of inbreeding among royals — a common problem throughout Europe in those days. The Spanish emperor Charles V was the most powerful man in Europe. His illegitimate son was famous for his good looks, thanks to a little fresh blood. Many other portraits show the unhappy effects of mixing blue blood with more of the same blue blood. When one king married his niece, the result was Charles II (1665-1700). His severe underbite (an inbred royal family trait) was the least of his problems. An epileptic before that disease was understood, poor "Charles the Mad" would be the last of the Spanish Habsburgs. He died without an heir 1700, ushering in the continent-wide War of the Spanish Succession, and the dismantling of Spain's empire.
Details: Admission to the palace is €8 for the works (completa), or €7 for a principal ticket, which skips the Chapter Rooms and Royal Pantheon. This pricing system may change sometime in 2008 (open April–Sept Tue–Sun 10:00–19:00, closed Mon, Oct–March closes at 18:00, last entry 60 min before closing, tel. 918-905-904). It's worth the extra euro to see it all. But be warned that if you arrive less than 90 minutes before closing, you can get only the cheaper ticket. A €10 combo-ticket includes the nearby Valley of the Fallen war memorial (buy ticket before 15:00 April-Sept or 14:00 Oct-March), but makes sense only for drivers, since people taking the bus to the Valley of the Fallen have the site admission included in the cost of transportation.
You'll find scanty captions in English within the palace. For more information, get the Guide: Monastery of San Lorenzo El Real de El Escorial, which follows the general route you'll take (€8, available at any of several shops in the palace). While you can pay €9 for admission with a guided tour (ask at ticket office for next English tour), I'd rent the €2.30 audioguide instead (for €3, you also get a voucher for the audioguide at Valley of the Fallen).
Updated for 2008. For lots more information, check out our best-selling Rick Steves' Spain guidebook — or join us on one of our free-spirited tours in Spain.