Opening Up The Secret Places In Philip II’s Royal Monastery

Despite perching imperiously on a mountainside near Madrid for the better part of five centuries, the royal monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial has yet to give up all its treasures – or all its secrets.

Forty years after it was included on Unesco’s World Heritage list, Philip II’s austere monument to power, piety and patronage is undergoing a major reorganisation that will allow visitors to enjoy the peace of a previously off-limits monastic patio and to look at paintings once reserved for the royal gaze.

The two-year project, made possible by €6.5m (£5.4m) of EU funds, aims to reintroduce visitors to the 33,327 sq metre site, a hulking testament to the imperial and cultural might of Spain’s golden age.

El Escorial, 35 miles north-west of Madrid, was the fulfilment of Philip II’s dream of raising a monastery in a “desert”, far from people and other buildings. His vision, which took 21 years to complete, involved the genius of two architects: Juan Bautista de Toledo, who had worked with Michelangelo in Rome, and, later, Juan de Herrera, who made the most of the logistical knowledge he had acquired while fighting in Flanders for Philip’s father, Charles V.

“This place was far​ away from everywhere else when it was founded; it wasn’t a literal desert, but it was a kind of desert,” says Luis Pérez de Prada, head of buildings and environment at Spain’s national heritage institution, Patrimonio Nacional. “It was an incredible feat of work and it shows humanity’s ability to create something in the middle of nowhere.”

Although El Escorial is hardly an unknown destination – it received more than 450,000 visitors last year – Pérez de Prada and his colleagues are keen to offer people a fresh perspective, literally and metaphorically.

“It’s a reopening with a much deeper understanding of what one of Spain’s most important monuments is about architecturally and artistically, and of all the symbolism implicit in this place,” he says.

The most immediate change is the point of entry: instead of going in through the side, visitors will enter through the Patio of Kings, an imposing courtyard that immediately gives a sense of the immense scale and strength of the complex.

“You’re going to get a much greater understanding of the monastery’s architecture now that you’re able to come in through the Patio of Kings,” says Pérez de Prada. “We really want people to understand what they’re visiting when they come to a place like this; it’s not just about saying: ‘Yeah, I’ve done the tour and I can say I’ve visited El Escorial.’ You need to understand how it was created and how it’s been modified.”

For the first time, visitors will also be able to wander around the monastery’s Patio of the Evangelists, a tranquil garden of fountains and statues with a cupola at its centre that echoes the great dome of the basilica.

The other significant elements of the rethink are to be found in the dormant painting and architecture galleries, which are being reopened, reorganised and revitalised at a cost of €2.4m.

The painting gallery, which closed seven years ago, will be arranged across nine rooms to show and explore the tastes, commissions and acquisitions of four monarchs: Philip II, Philip IV, Charles II and Isabel II. Among its 99 Italian, Spanish, Flemish, French and German pictures – many of them not previously on public display – are works by Titian, El Greco, Velázquez, Tintoretto, Zurbarán and Juan Fernández de Navarrete.

Almost half the rooms will be given over to Philip II to reflect his cultural clout.

“Philip II is the person who lays the foundation of the Spanish royal collections,” says Carmen García Frías, a paintings curator at Patrimonio Nacional. “Few monarchs had a brand new palace like this one in which to set out their decorative ideas and collect together such fine works of religious art.”

Pride of place will go to Calvary, a painstakingly restored work by Rogier van der Weyden painted between 1457 and 1464 for the Carthusian order in Scheut, on the outskirts of Brussels, and bought by Philip II in the 1550s. García Frías describes it as “one of the most important works of universal painting”.

Not far away is the architecture gallery, which will displays nails and tools used in the building’s construction, as well as sketches and models of a singular piece of design and engineering.

There are also more mundane matters to attend to. Almost a third of the EU money – €2m – will go on updating the building and making it more sustainable by putting in LED lighting, installing four electric vehicle charging points, and using solar panels to help power Patrimonio Nacional’s workshops.

In 18 months, once the paving in the Patio of the Evangelists has been levelled, the lighting sorted, the paintings hung and the architectural exhibits arranged, visitors will finally be able to explore a little more of Philip II’s desert dream.

For Pérez de Prada, however, the monastery’s importance transcends the vision of one man.

“The most powerful monarch of the time is driving all this forward in his name,” he says. “But it’s also a place where you can see the evolution of art and architecture making an important leap during the Renaissance. It also shows us what society – and the world – was like at the time: the religious wars; the counter-reformation. All of that is reflected here.”