The Monastery of the Escorial also known as San Lorenzo del Escorial is a monastery located in Spain, in Madrid. In 1984 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Escorial Monastery is a huge quadrangular building with four corner towers and a monumental facade. Inside it has 4 000 rooms, 7 600 windows, more than 3 200 doors, 86 stairways, 16 courtyards, 15 cloisters and 88 fountains.

The Monastery, a real temple of culture and art, has a vast collection of art divided into the various areas of the building:

The Palacio de los Austrias with period furniture and furnishings;

The Nuevos Museos where Spanish, Italian and Flemish masterpieces are exhibited. Among the various artists we find El Greco, Velázquez, Tiziano, Tintoretto, Veronese, Bosch. The Basilica whose vaults are frescoed by Cambiaso and Giordano and with the white marble Crucifix by Benvenuto Cellini;

The Salas Capitulares with ceilings decorated by Genoese artists of the sixteenth century. Here too there are paintings by great artists: El Greco, Velázquez, Tintoretto, Veronese, Bosch. The Pantheon, underground, with the tombs of almost all the kings and queens of Spain; the Library and finally the Casita del Principe, a small neoclassical building.