People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1893-09-22
THE ESCURIAL.
The Great Palace and Monastery OF the
SpapIsh Kings.

The Great Palace and Monastery OF the
spanIsh Kings.
From the railway station a dusty
road leads up to the village of Escorial,
as the Spaniards write it At closer
sight the apparent barrenness of the
situation diminishes In front of the
monastery are vast plantations of dark
green trees; here and there are villas
with gardens; the village itself, which
from distance appears mere gray
spot on the mountain-slope, proves to
be of considerable extent and, for
Spain, it is neat and comparatively
clean; the square in front of the town.
hall is planted with flowers, and the
inhabitants look less beggarly than one
would expect The fact is that ESQ.,
rial is a summer resort for the Madrid
people, who go there with their fami-
lies to escape the heat of the capital.
The state itself lets lodgings, and many
families hire from the crown apart
ments in the interminable buildings
that surround the Real Sitio de San
Lorenzo, as the Escurial is officially
called.
All along the Main street of the town,
which rises and rises until it ends in a
mere path up the mountain side, the
vast rectangular buildings of the de-
Tendencies of the convent palace con-
tinue in gray monotony, block after
block, joined together by gal
leries and arches that span the
lateral streets leading to the central
area. On the chimney of one of these
dependencies may be seen a stork's
nest, the only feature which distin-
cuisines it from a hundred other
chimneys Let US turn down this
street, pass under the arch, and here
we are with the gray granite leviathan
before us. The immensely of it takes
your breath away; it is not a palace,
but a cyclopean town; and although
the sun may be shining brilliantly, it
looks sad and funereal with its gray
walls picked out with staring joints of
white mortar, its leaden roofs. its
granite-paved surroundings, its vol
canic aspect This impression of some
thing burnt blasted, plutonian, of
something that has passed through ra-
ging fire, struck me time after time as
looked upon the structure Nor is this
idea of fire inappropriate The palace
convent itself is built in the form of a
gridiron turned upside down, and that
in memory of the patron, San Lorenzo,
who was broiled by Valerian on slow
fire, and, according to Prudentius, bore
his martyrdom with GOODNESS and even
jocose irony, for when one side was
roasted he had himself turned, and in
vited his cooks to try whether he tasted
better underdone or well done.
The plan is rectangular parallelo-
gram. At the four corners are towers
with pointed roofs, which represent
the feet OF the gridiron; the church and
the royal palace, which jut out on one
facade, form the handle; the interior
buildings, which unite together the
two longer sides, form the crossbars.
On two sides there are gardens, and on
two other sides vast open spaces, paved
with granite slabs, or strown with
gravel, marked off by columns and
chains, and further bounded by the
immense dependencies which shut off
the view of the Escurial from the vii
lage. After the pyramids, this is the
hugest pile of granite that the hand Of
man has constructed Facades, doors,
vestibules, domes, towers, all are in
harmony with the grandeur and phara.
oaic character of the edifice. Even the
gardens are somber and austere, for
they consist exclusively of fountains
surrounded by box trees cut in geomet-
rical and labyrinthine designs. We
must not find fault with the building
because it has not those qualities
which it was never intended to
have. The architect was ordered to
raise a monument on the plan of a
gridiron in order to recall the instru-
ment of torture on which St. Laurence
suffered martyrdom. This strange in
reference of photography with archi-
lecture is in keeping with the charac-
ter of the founder. The vastness of
the votive monument is in conformity
with the temper Of the king upon
whose dominions the sun shone "all
the twenty-four hours of the natural
day." though we may also say, with
the old Duke Braganza, 'he who made
such great VOW must have had great
fear" Furthermore, we must remem.
her that the accomplishment of the
VOW made under the walls of St. Quen.
tin was strengthened by Philips pious
desire to carry out the last wishes OF
Charles ", who left for his son the care
of providing fitting burial place for
his dynasty Thus the Escurial is at
once mausoleum, monastery, and a
palace. Theodore Child, in Harper's
Magazine.
PTTH AND POINT.