New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-10-08
The EscuriaI.

Che dispatches by cable from Spain last
week, relative to the burning of this noted
building, were read with sadness, particu,
larry by such as have had the good fortune
to visit the EscuriaI in its splendor. The
last telegram of the week, Saturday morn
ing, noting the extinguishment of the con-
fagration with an estimated damage of
onIyt$l50,OO0, and the salvationEof the many
valuable objects to which it had been
thought would perish, afforded much
relief. 4 portion of the library of
this palace was destroyed in 1871, 200
years ago, and again in 176l. Those
! who have seen this immense granitic-
| looking pile could with difficulty believe
] 1t possible to burn, particularly the marble
mausoleum beneath if, in which are stored
| the porphyric coffns containing the re-
mains of all the sovereigns of Spain since
Charles v, which the first dispatch, men
tioning the lightning stroke, said there was
little prospect of saving. Yesterday morn
ing's dispatch reduces The estimate of dam
age to $125.O0O.
This palace and mausoleum of Che kings
u SE''eAAA 10 ~ FSAJ CuL4SuS OuSy anu since
the destruction Of the great banqueting
hall of gamar or Tara celebrated in poetry
by Moore), which was 900 feet square, and
which feasted 1000 guests daily and was
the great seat of the Irish kings to the time
OF Mall, it is probably the largest in tie
world. 1t is situated in barren region in
the Guadarama mountains of New CASTLE.
twenty-fQur miles northwest from Madrid,
built in fulfllment Of a VOW made by
Philip II. that he would build the most
magnificent monastery in the world if st.
Lawrence would give him victory over the
French in the battle of st. Quentin, 1857.
St. Lawrence suffered martyrdom by being
broiled on a gridioron, and the King or
dered his architects to build the gronnd
plan in the form of gridiron.
Twenty-one years labor and $I5,000,0O0
were expended in completing the work. 1t
is 60 feet high, 74O feet long and $50 wide.
1t contains royal palace, chapel, monas-
terry of 200 cells, two colleges, three chapter
houses, three libraries, five great halls COW
cred with the finest silk tapestry, with pic
lures from the masters, six dOrmitOries,
three hospital halls, twenty-seven other
halls, nine Tetectories, five infrmaries, a |
number of apartments for attend |
ants, eighty staircases, ITO windows looking |
and 1878 inward, or, including out
houses, 1000 windows in all, beside fourteen |
gates and eighty-six fountains. The whole
edifce is built of white stone, spotted with
gray, resembling granite. The church part
Of the building is in imitation of st. Peters,
aG Rome, 'and has forty chapels, all che
tioor paved with marbieg with dome $50
feeS above it, painted to represent heaven,
and the artists likeness sits on q white
throne thereino The mausoleume under the
nigh ALTAR already mentioned, is of the
inest marble, and was added by Philip ~,
designed from the Roman Pantheon. 1t is
thirty-six feet high, with jasper
md black marble walls It was from this
5reat library that Prescott irving Motley
md Ticknor drew their greatest stores of
spanish historyo So that, even if the Escu-
ial be destroyed we can, as Jared Sparks
avs, ""read the history Of the Spanish en-
ire, not in the ancient Spanish authors,
ot in black letter chronicles bu5 in the
olumes of Prescottp' and sLe otheg authors
amed aboveo''