El Escorial Y El Valle de Los Caidos

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Craig and I decided to venture out today to El Escorial and El Valle de Los Vaidos, located 50 minutes Northwest fo Madrid. Felipe II built the Monestary of El Escorial as a gift to God and to commemorate the victory of the Spanish over the French at the battle of San Quintin in 1557. The monestary contains several sections. The Palacio Real, where Felipe II lived in the summer and evenetually died. The Panteon Real was one of my favorite parts. It consists of several rooms which contain the tombs of most of the Spanish monarchs and their families. I felt like I was entering a vampires lair when I entered the main room where all the kings and queens are buried. The tombs are stacked one on top of each other from floor to ceiling. The kings and queens are only buried there after their bodies have decomposed for 25 years in the "waiting room". Then their remains are placed in a small box in the bigger tomb.

The basilica is also on the monestary grounds. It was one fo the largest church that Craig and I had ever seen and had a beautiful altar.

After visiting El Escorial we went for lunchin the town. As usual, we were feeling quite tired and needed to rejuventae with some food. After lunch we headed back to the station to pick up the bus for El Valle de Los Caidos. While we were standing in line we ran into a group of students from Clemson (South Carolina). It was nice to talk with them and hear some familiar accents.

El Valle de Los Caidos was commissioned by Franco to commemorate alll those who died in the Spanisg civil war from 1936 until 1939. As you can imagine, this is a very controversial site. Graffiti lined the entrance walls with lots of statements against fascism. The memorial consists of a huge cross, the biggest Ive ever seen, on top of a mountain and a basillica that is carved into the mountain underneath. The entire structure was very grand and quite difficult to imagine how it was built. Apparently, many of thos forced to build the memorial died doing so. Franco is buried in the basilica beneath the high altar.

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Comments

[Jay]

That picture of the tombs is eerie. I have this picture that I took in Lisbon of a tomb constructed of the bones Portuguese monks. Strange! Hey and speaking of strange, when did you start wearing pink capris?