Daytrip

After finals ended, we had almost a full week off with no class. Unable to go on any significant trips due to lack of preparation and lack of money, my friends and I decided we had to at least make a daytrip somewhere, just to avoid sitting around for six days doing absolutely nothing.

My dream biblioteca

We chose to visit El Escorial, a monastery and historical palace in the mountains around Madrid. It was an hour-long train ride from the center of Madrid out to the little town, where El Escorial is the most important tourist attraction. The building is massive, and the huge basilica makes it easy to point out from far away. As with almost every other historical building I've seen in Europe, the most impressive part is the unbelievable intricacy of every little detail inside and out, and even though it wasn't as externally breathtaking as Versailles, I personally thought it was much less gaudy. Where in Versailles the beauty came from masterpieces painted onto the ceilings and gold adornments, in El Escorial it was more humble (only relative to Versailles... there is nothing humble about any palace). For example, there were these hand-carved wooden doors called Las puertas de marquetería that were just amazing, and worth €20 million each according to the security guard. They were just wood; no gold, silver, or jewels were necessary to make them beautiful. 


The best rooms were the basilica itself at the end--one of my favorite churches thus far, after Barcelona and Toledo--and the library. Being ridiculously wealthy doesn't seem that attractive to me, but if were to become the next Mark Zuckerberg I would have a library like this one; books everywhere, huge windows, the seven Liberal Arts painted on the ceiling, and a huge globe at the end of the room (the best part for a cartophile like myself). It was hard to really enjoy it all, since I was surreptitiously trying to take illegal pictures of everything while the hawkish security guards were turned away. Today, it's no longer a place of residence for the monarchy. The church is still used for mass, and obviously the building is a museum for tourists as well, but the site is also an elementary school. I can't even imagine how unbelievably awesome it would be to go to school inside of a palace. 

Recess! 

After El Escorial, we took a trip to another historical site in the same area, Valle de los Caídos, or Valley of the Fallen, a site that is much more recent and much more controversial. It was built during Franco's reign in memory of all the Spaniards who died during the Civil War, but the overwhelming Catholic references--such as the MASSIVE cross that tops the mountain--make it seem more like a homage to the right-wing Nationalists of Franco's party. Of course, the most contentious point is that Francisco Franco himself is buried there, and there is a lot of debate in Spain right now about taking the entire building down to prevent Franco-fanatics from making pilgrimages to his grave.

The cross in the background is enormous.
Pictures do not do it justice. 

I can't speak to the atrocities Franco committed, but the site itself is beautiful, and I think it should stay for that reason alone. The landscape is breathtaking (it's perched in the mountains, so you can see across miles of ranges) and the architecture is gorgeous as well. There's a solemn mien to it, which helps to stress the sad history that accompanies it. And even though many people want to tear it down, it should also stay erected for the same reason Nazi concentration camps still exist: history is history, for better or for worse. You can't demolish the building without demolishing the history along with it.