El Escorial y El Valle de los Caídos

(El Valle de los Caídos, Spain)

Because I needed to be somewhere on time this morning, of course my alarm clock failed to wake me up. Fortunately, my sense of panic did, and I flew to the metro and managed to make it to our meeting spot on time. I wasn't even the last one there. We ended up leaving a half-hour late anyway because we were waiting for Don. He was waiting at the metro station for a friend who was coming with us. He must have lost track of time and we couldn't call him, because Apelcom cancelled his service because of this whole Bank of America locked card issue that everyone is having. We drove around the block to pick him up but he wasn't there. We then saw him walking frantically up the street. We flagged him down and the whole bus pulled over to pick him up. As we were driving out of Madrid we saw all the workers putting up Christmas lights. The displays are going to be amazing - there are lights everywhere. They don't turn them on until the end of November, but I am getting really excited!

We drove about an hour to El Escorial. It is in a very odd town. It's all built on the side of a mountain and the houses are all modern, but it all seemed very strange. Maybe it was the cloudy weather or the lack of people on the streets at 10 in the morning, but the whole town seemed kind of spooky. We had about twenty minutes to walk around or get breakfast. A bunch of kids got gofres con chocolate (waffles with chocolate) at a street stand and then we met up in front of El Escorial.

El Escorial is a monastery, university, library, basilica, the traditional crypt of the Spanish monarchs, and the palace of Felipe II de España. It was his life's project but the whole complex was built in only 21 years (compared to the normal 200 years for most of the other buildings in Spain). The outside looks very much like a fort, (we were told the Hapsburgs - including Felipe II de España - were quite austere and invested more money in their paintings than in the outsides of the buildings). We split up into two groups and started our tour. The whole place wasn't heated, so it was rather chilly, and we started by just going through and looking at where Felipe II lived with his family. It was all very simple and dark. We talked about paintings for almost 1.5 hours, so the tour dragged a bit (especially because I was hungry by this point and thinking about gofres con chocolate). We saw an old sundial type invention that was used to coordinate all the clocks in the palace and the throne of Felipe II, one of the most powerful monarchs in history.

The tour picked up when we went down into the tombs to look at where the last 4 centuries of Spanish monarchs are buried. Quite extravagant; all these elaborate sarcophagi inscribed with names of people that I've learn about in classes for years. After the tombs, we stopped at the library, where there is a copy of every book written before 18th century (pretty spiffy) and then walked back out into the main plaza. Our tour guide explained that the basilica was closed because of construction, so that was a shame (it is the central feature of El Escorial and supposed to be awesome). The basilica has a relic of every saint minus three and the place must be huge, judging my the size of the dome. From the plaza you can see the spire on top of El Escorial, which contains what appears to be one gold brick. It really stands out as the rest of the roof is black slate. We were told that when they were building El Escorial it was debated whether the whole thing should be built of gold. Unfortunately, they hadn't quite collected that much gold from the Americas, so that wasn't a possibility, but they didn't want the commoners to know that, so they put the gold block in the spire as a sign that they had the wealth, they were just making a statement of strength by making the whole thing of stone. And apparently, it's not just a brick, but a solid gold box that contains relics of saints that are supposed to protect El Escorial. But because that whole story was told in Spanish, there might be some personal interpretation in there.

After our nearly 3 hour tour, we got a bathroom break, during which Kevin, Jack, and I got separated from the group (Spaniards don't seem count to make sure everyone is there). I called Lizzie, and we ran to meet up the group. The then walked to a nearby park for our picnic. Ana had brought food for everyone, which she had packed in two rolling suitcases that we had been dragging around all day. She had about 10 loafs of bread (which comes with the crust cut off in Spain), cheese, and of course, ham. There were drinks, fruit, cookies, and chocolate, so we were all happy. I didn't even notice how cold it was.

We then hopped back on the bus and drove to El Valle de los Caídos, a monument that Franco had built to honor all the Fascists that died in the Spanish Civil War. Because of this, it is quite the controversial monument. Even more so, because lots of people died (mostly Republicans) building it, (it was freezing and there were really dangerous working conditions) and Franco had them all buried there, too, much to the anger of the families. It is this huge cross, church, and monastery built on top of a mountain, and lots of people, even today, want it torn down. It is also very austere and the stormy weather added to the effect. Also, all these monuments are half in the clouds because they are all built on the tallest mountains so that they are closer to God.

We walked into the church and my jaw dropped. The place was huge and built completely into the mountain. We learned that the the whole nave is actually longer than that of the Vatican, which isn't allowed in Catholicism. I think Franco probably knew this when they were building, but they put up a gate about halfway down and declared that to be the start of the official church. So the "church" with the vestibule and anti-vestibule put together are significantly longer than the Vatican. The nave leads to a huge wooden crucifix above the altar; Franco went out into the woods, picked a tree, and had the whole thing carved in front of him. The dome, (above which is the peak of the mountain and the big concrete cross) is all ornantely decorated with saints and Spaniards (but only Fascist Spaniards). There are two chapels with doors that lead down to the huge crypt, (us normal people can't go down there) where all the unnamed Fascists are buried. And behind the altar is the tomb of Franco himself. I think you really get a feel for him standing in this church and I was more impressed with El Valle de los Caídos then with El Escorial.

It was also interesting to learn that there used to be a river that ran through the mountain. Franco, unconcerned, told them to build there anyway. Now there are big water stains all over the ceiling and big pots everywhere to catch the running water. This seems to me to be quite a large problem as the whole thing is situated under the weight of a mountain and a 152 meter high concrete cross. But who am I to judge?

We got back on the bus and drove back to Madrid. I took the metro back with Amanda and stopped at a convenience store to get more toilet paper (yes, the toilet paper is still an issue). Then I decided to go for a walk. I wandered north past where I usually go for my runs (I say that like I run often - rephrase - my two runs). It seemed to take me less time to get there walking then running, so that's not a good sign. After about 45 minutes of exploring, I turned around and headed back to Julia's. I had a good dinner, (cheese wrapped in ham and fried - unhealthy? Yes. Delicious? Yes) and we also had a decent conversation about natural disasters and global warming. Then I wrote another paragraph of my paper for Ana and decided to go to El Rastro tomorrow morning with Kathryn. I also received notification that Hayley has a Facebook, so I am about to Skype home and investigate further.