El Escorial - Royal Monastery and Palace of the Escorial Monasterio de San Lorenzo

From the outside, the Escorial - a massive pile, built of grayish white granite in the form of a rectangle 204m/669ft long by 161m/528ft wide - looks more like a fortress or a barracks than a monastery. Although conceived in the spirit of 16th century Italian classicism, it shows the beginnings of the Spanish Baroque school. At the core of the whole complex is the church with its twin towers and its 90m/295ft high dome. To the west of this is the Patio de los Reyes, to the south the cloister, with the sacristy and the chapter rooms, to the east and north the royal palace. Altogether the Escorial has 16 courtyards, 2,673 windows, 1,250 doors, 86 staircases and 88 fountains, and the corridors have a total length of 16km/10mi.

The main entrance to the Escorial, the Puerta Principal, is on the west side, opening off the main square, the Lonja. Over the doorway are St Lawrence's gridiron, the arms of the Habsburgs and a statue of St Lawrence by Juan Bautista Monegro.

On the south side of the Lower Cloister of the church at El Escorial are the Salas Capitulares, with beautiful ceiling paintings. They contain numerous pictures, including works by Navarrete, Ribera and Luca Giordano, together with vestments and liturgical utensils.

On the south side of the church at El Escorial is the Lower Cloister (with frescoes by Tibaldi), within which is the Patio de los Evangelistas, named after the fountain-house (by Herrera) with figures of the four Evangelists which stands in the center of the courtyard.

The Escalera Principal, with two symmetrical flights, leads to the upper floor; it was designed by Herrera. The ceiling has a painting of the battle of Saint-Quentin by Luca Giordano; on the walls are portraits, including those of Juan Bautista de Toledo and Juan de Herrera.

On the south side of the Patio de los Reyes, on the second floor, is the Library. Decorated with fine frescoes by Tibaldi depicting "The Foundations of Learning", it contains more than 40,000 volumes. Some of its most valuable incunabula, notably the Codez Aureus (1093) attributed to the German Emperor Conrad II, are displayed in cases, together with a manuscript of Alfonso the Wise's "Hymns to the Virgin", manuscripts in the hand of Santa Teresa of Ávila and Hebrew and Arabic writings.

The Iglesia Antigua adjoining the chapter rooms was used for worship while the Escorial was under construction. It contains a fine painting of "The Martyrdom of St Lawrence".

Below the sacristy and the chapter rooms is the burial vault of Spanish princes and princesses and queens whose children did not succeed to the throne.

Immediately underneath the church is the Panteón de los Reyes, the burial vault of the Spanish kings. A domed octagonal structure originally designed by Herrera was enlarged by Juan Gómez de Mora and completed in 1654. The black marble and gilded bronze decoration, by Giovanni Baptista Crescenti, reflects the Baroque taste of the period. On the left-hand side are identical granite sarcophagi containing the remains of almost all the Spanish kings from Charles V onwards, together with Isabella II; on the right are the queen mothers and Isabella II's husband Francisco de Asís.

In the south aisle of the church is a doorway leading through the ante-sacristy (with a ceiling painting by Nicola Granelo) into the sacristy, which contains more than 40 valuable pictures. Among them is Claudio Coello's "Festival of the Host" (1684), which covers a niche containing the Sagrada Forma, a Host which is said to have been desecrated by Dutch Calvinists in 1572.

The Puerta Principal leads into the Patio de los Reyes. This is dominated by the facade of the church, with the statues of Old Testament kings from which it takes its name, and by the two massive towers.

Immediately underneath the church at El Escorial is the Panteón, the burial-place of the Spanish kings from Charles V onwards. An octagonal domed structure by Juan de Herrera, it was enlarged in the 17th century by Juan Goàmez de Mora. The interior decoration in black marble and gilded bronze, by Giovanni Battista Crescenti, reflects the Baroque taste of the period.