Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-06
THE FAMED ESCUR|AL
King Philips Mammoth Pal
ace Near Madrid.
ON A COLOSSAL SCALE
NINETY SIX MILES OF ROOMS
AND CORRIDORS.
The Many Purposes for Which the
Palace Was Constructed - The
Escurial and the Armada.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star ard
the Chicago Record Herald.

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star ard
the Chicago Record Herald.
MADRID October 2i, 1905
IT the gloomiest gorge that he could find
in the Guadarrama Mountains, about an
hour and a halfs ride by rail from Mad i'd
Philip II, the remarkable ascetic, King Of
Spain in 1563-s4, built stupendous struct-
ure, "a leviathan of architecture" as it has
been called by some, IAN architectural
nightmare" as it has been called by others
part palace, part fortress part monastery,
part church, part prison and part tomb.
Some claim it to be the largest place of
residence in existence, even larger than the
Vatican and it is certainly one of the most
remarkable. Its purpose and significance
carnot be fully understood without a close
study of the character OF King Philip
which many Catholic writer's insist has
never been properly understood by hsto
rians-and the spirit of the time in which
he lived. Some writer's have called him in
sane, and there must have been something
wrong in the mind of this cruel yet devout,
superstitious yet brave, gloomy yet affec-
tionate character, who seemed to care more
for the eXtirpation of heresy from his do
minions than for the glory of his nation or
the perpetuation of his name. Those who
disagreed with him questions of theol-
ogy were sent to torture and burnt at the
stake-and he argued in justification of his
hideous atrocities that through the mercy
of our Lord Jesus Christ an unbeliever
would find salvation if he was made to suf-
fer martyrdom. Accepting that extraordinary
theory as true, Philip II must have sent
more souls to paradise than any other
agent of the church.
According to his own statement his rea-
sons for building the Escurial We're to have
an appropriate burial place for his father.
Emperor Charles of Germany and King
Charles of Spain and his descendants, and
to express his gratitude to his patron, st.
Lawrence. to whose Intervention he attrb
uted the victory of his armies at San Quen-
tin, which happened on his anniversary,
August 10, 1861. He placed the palace under
the care of the monks of the order of st.
Jerome. ION account of our especial affec-
tion and respect for this order and that
which was also bestowed upon it by the
emperor and king, my father" He provd-
ed that daily masses and prayers be said
at the Escurial for his father. his mother,
himself and for all his successors, which
monks who occupy the monastery. The
records show that more than 5000 masses
had been celebrated up to the first of Janu-
airy, 1903, for the dead kings and queens of
Spain and over 1900 for the imperial house
of Austria.
Selecting Site.
For two years Philip sought for sublime
and imposing pedestal upon which he could
topography of the entire range of the Qua
darramas he finally decided upon the spot
where it now stands as being most appro-
pirate for the purpose. bleak solitude, sur
rounded by rocky peaks whose slopes are
sprinkled with granite powders, furrowed
by the dry beds of torrents, and for seven
months of the year capped with blankets of
snow. An eminent architect. Juan Bautista
de Toledo, found in Italy, was intrusted
with the work Of supervising the building,
but the king himself was the real designer.
He endeavOred to develop certain charac-
terstics and general effects, simplicity.
unity, harmony. maSSiveness and grandeur,
and no other structure expresses them so
well. Everything is on the most colossal
scale. The building is a rectangle parallelo-
gram, IA by $50 feet in siZe and covers a
surface of 500, coo square feet.
The walls are sixteen feet thick in the
lower stories of granite quarried out of the
mountains that surround it. There are six
teen large courts or quadrangles, / Ill win
dows on the outside and ,562 on the inside;
$50 rooms, 1902 doors. 15 cloisters, SO stair
cases. 5000 square feet of fresco painting
50 fountains ~ affairs and SO miles of rooms
and corridors.
From its angles spring eight towers two
hundred feet high, and the center is crowned
by the dome of the church. Three of the
four facades are majestic, and a French
architect described them as being "of an
awful simplicity" The general ground plan
is grdiron selected as appropriate for
building dedicated to ST. Lawrence. 1t is
called in Spanish lei Escorial," after the
name Of the mountain behind it, which is
sprnkled with vestges of scorae from
some extinct volcano
How and Where the King Died.
The building is divided into four parts
one being fitted up for the accommoda-
ton of the royal family. and when it was
finished Philip deserted his capital and
made it his residence, devoting four hours
of each day to prayer and fagellation with
the rest of the monks, and boasting that
he governed two worlds from this noun
tain solitude. None of his successors has
occupied it as a residence. He was at
Madrid when he felt the approach of death,
and insisted upon being borne hither The
Journey took six days in a litter carried
upon mems shoulders. A few hours before
he died he commanded his servants to
carry him through the building in order
that he might take a final survey of the
monument he had erected for himself
Then, being borne to his small, bare cham
ber. like the cell of a monk, he summoned
his children to embrace him, confessed his
sins, received the sacrament. and, with his
eyes fixed upon crucif1x which his father,
Charles ", had grasped in his dying hour,
waited for the last summons. Dhe scene Of
his death has been portrayed many times
by famous artists. You see the picture in
almost every art gallery in Spain.
Dominated Nearly the Whole World.
When Philip II came to the throne Spain
was at the height of it's power and glory.
His father left him the absolute and auto
cratic master Of an empire greater than has
ever been known since the fall of Rome.
CONTINUED on Fifteenth Page.)