Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso

The Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso is a former summer residence of the Spanish kings. The castle is located in San Ildefonso in Segovia the region, approximately 60 kilometers northwest of Madrid. It is considered Spanish Versailles.

History

Occupied the site of the castle in the late Middle Ages, a small chapel, the St. Ildefonso (Spanish for " San Ildefonso " ) was dedicated and was supervised by the Hieronymitenmönchen, which also resulted in a monastery here. Later to this monastery belonged to a small country house (Spanish granja ) in which it was Philip V hosts once and fell in love with the landscape. 1720 bought the king the Hieronymitenmönchen the lands around the monastery and the country house and began planning for the construction of a castle.

Initially, a simple four -winged castle around the former cloister of the monastery was built, which was executed by Teodoro Adremáns. In this palace the future palace church was backward integrated to the Corps de Logis, so they formed the mutual facade facing the garden. 1723 was the work progressed so far that the royal couple was able to move his new residence. As early as 1724 the king released his new palace too small and there were in the following years, a total of four wings, two left and two right of the main building, is added, which extended the width of the lock on the garden side now at 153 meters and the floor plan of the building given the approximate shape of a capital H. The costs arising from the new additions honor farms were according to their use, or their shape, sometimes referred to as Kutschenhof and as Hufeisenhof.

1734 by the Italian architect Filippo Juvarra was ordered to the Spanish court, the planning for the new building of the destroyed by fire Palacio Real Madrid was in charge of here and for the Castle of La Granja, the facades were revised and that its present appearance.

The castle area was enlarged in subsequent centuries constantly rebuilt, extended and enlarged with outbuildings, the palace was occupied again by the Bourbons and was long the most popular residences of the royal family. Due to its location in more than 1,200 meters above sea level, the summer were here fresher than in the scorching capital. Even the dictator Francisco Franco has visited the castle regularly.

In the 20th century two fires ravaged parts of the palace: in 1918 a fire broke out which destroyed more than half the roofs and some outbuildings; the subsequent restoration works require almost ten years. In 1991, the former private rooms Franco were destroyed by another fire.

The Palace of La Granja is now a museum, are provided in the extensive art treasures of the Spanish kings on display. Particularly well known is the castle for his significant tapestries.

Park

The palace has a 600 hectare comprehensive Castle Park, which is one of the largest in Spain. On the garden side of the corps de logis, a delimited with hedges ground floor is a large cascade. The subsequent sections are organized into boskets. A lake, called El Mar, which serves as a water reservoir, located in a large wooded area.

The Baroque Garden of La Granja is incurred after the park of Versailles model. The abundance of water the nearby mountains permit operation of numerous fountains and the large cascade. In two pooled Bosketten there is a 2.7 -hectare vortex maze that was created after the plan by Antoine -Joseph d' Dezallier Argenville 1725.

Impressions of the parks

Fountain in Castle Park

Detail of a fountain

Detail of a fountain