Located just 50 minutes from the center of Madrid, at 1028 meters altitude in the Sierra de Guadarrama, an area with plenty of water and granite quarries necessary for construction. The project was planned by Philip II, with the help of the architect Juan Bautista de Toledo in the XVI century to celebrate the victory in the battle of Saint Quentin in 1557 but was also a monument to Christianity. It has been considered the Eighth Wonder of the World due to the size and complexity of the monument, which occupies an area of 33,327 square meters. The building includes 2,600 windows, 1,200 doors, and 9 towers. The project was completed in about 20 years, which could be considered a record for the time. The building includes a basilica, library, royal palace, crypt, museum and convent. The museum preserves an amazing artistic heritage with a complete collections of paintings from the German, Italian and Spanish schools from the XV and XVII centuries, including pieces from painters such as Tiziano, Velazquez and Bosch. The library includes an important collection of books from XV and XVI centuries and currently have about 40,000 volumes. For centuries it was the residence of the Royal Family and has been the burial place of the kings for the last five centuries. It is one of the UNESCO monuments, declared as a World Heritage Site in 1984.
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