A Palace fit for a King

This is a palace fit for a King, in fact it is where the Monarchs of Spain have had a residence since the 16th century and a place of defense of the Roman Catholic faith in Spain since that time.  It is a monastery, has fantastic architecture, wonderful artwork contains a basilica and the library simply takes your breath away.  I feel sorry for the people who were visiting the day before we arrived as due to a royal event it was closed to the public.  The tour around the inside of this building was a rich history of the monarchs of Spain and their commitment to defending Christianity.  Unfortunately no photographs are allowed inside so here’s one of the library ceiling which I managed to take before being told I couldn’t.

This ceiling is fascinating.  It depicts the seven liberal arts: Rhetoric, Dialectic, Music, Grammar, Arithmetic, Geometry, and Astronomy and has images of some of the great masters and scholars of these arts: Pythagoras,  Plato, Galileo.  However the first part of the ceiling represents Theology, placed deliberately to say all everything else follows from the study of the nature of God and religious beliefs. The other end depicted philosophy. I don’t think I’ve ever spent so much time in a library.  Simply stunning.

The basilica was large and ornate, as with so many others we have seen on this trip, and with the usual massive altar piece.  Outside however, where most we have seen have carvings of Christ and the disciples, or of the four Gospel writers, this had statues of the Kings of Judah Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, David, Solomon, Josiah, Manasseh.

Then we have the Pantheon of Kings and the Pantheon of Princes.  Those who have read the latest Dan Brown book Origin will know about this.  A bit strange to walk past and stare at the sepulchers and tombs of kings, queens, princes and princesses.

There was much more in this royal Palace, I wouldn’t have missed this visit for anything.  It was a fascinating insight into the Kings and Queens of a nation once the most powerful in the World.  The library itself was worth the entrance fee.  But would I call it a spiritual place, even though it is a monastery? I don’t think so.