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Published: August 9th 2007
Palace
Front palace viewOn the day I went to Segovia I also took a bus to "La Granja" about 10 miles away. La Granja was built by Phillip V, the first monarch of the Spanish Buorbons. He was born at Versailles in 1683 and enjoyed the gardens there so much he wanted to model La Granja after Versailles. The palace built was modest and he put most of his effort into the gardens. Because La Granja was on a hill you can´t see all the garden like you can at Versailles but it still is a place of beauty and a farvorite weekend get away for the Spanish.
There is a huge man made lake at the top of the gardens that collects the water that is used to operate the more than 30 fountains, the slope of the garden creates the pressure to run the fountains, there are no pumps. The fountains are amazing, all based on Greek gods. They weren´t running the day I was there, they are only ran a couple of days a week because there isn´t enough water to run them all the time.
As I was touring the palace, listening to my English electronic guide, two
Palace
Front palace view things overwhelmed me. The first was all the stuff - art, tapestrys, statues, paintings, etc... Room after room of art and the rooms themselves were works of art; inlaid stones and marbel, detailed wood working,I kept thinking "I just got rid of all my possesions" and this was only one of the kings palaces; too much stuff.
The second thing was all the different mythology and bible scenes by all the different Italian or whoever masters. I mean after two rooms of the monotone voice in your ear saying this is Guido´s depiction of the fall of Zeus or Flanderson´s portrayal of St. Bart´s pilgrimage to Roman you really stop paying attention. I know they say a picture is worth a 1000 words but do they have to prove it in every room.
La Granja is a beautiful place, the palace has been remodeled and added on to a couple of times and is much bigger than Phillip V´s original palace. I wish I would have been there when all the fountains were flowing.
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