La Granja Travel Guide

 breughel Says:  It is not surprising that the grandson of Louis XIV after seeing the fountains of Versailles wanted to have fountains in the gardens of his Spanish Palace. Twenty-six fountains with sculptures decorate the park. The water is that flowing from the mountain and collected in a... 

 breughel Says:  This is the best preserved collection of French decorative sculptures of the first half of the 17th c.They are mainly the work of two artists:René Frémin who created numerous works for Versailles and Jean Thierry who made many sculptures at Marly destroyed by the Revolution.... 

 breughel Says:  Most visitors to La Granja de San Ildefonso go there to see the gardens. Actually for King Felipe V the garden was more important than the palace.Philip V as a grandson of King Louis XIV had admired the Gardens of Versailles but for his retirement at La Granja he preferred... 

 breughel Says:  The ground floor with 12 rooms houses the sculpture collection of Felipe V and Isabella Farnese. Part of it belonged to Queen Christina of Sweden. Unfortunately few of these sculptures are antique originals as most were sent in the 19th c. to the Prado museum in Madrid. For... 

 breughel Says:  The guidebook of the Palace says: The Tapestry Collection of the Spanish Crown, the richest in the world … owes its exceptional quality and quantity to the dominium of the Spanish Sovereigns of the House of Austria (Hapsburg) over the Low Countries (presently Belgium). The... 

 breughel Says:  The 33 rooms open to visits belong to three distinct sections:Most valuable is the tapestry collection which I will describe in another tip. The ground floor houses the sculpture collection in 12 rooms decorated in the Italian manner. It is the subject of a specific... 

 breughel Says:  Left of the collegiate church is the visitor's entrance to the Royal Palace and the Patio de Coches - Carriage courtyard.This courtyard was mostly designed by Procaccini and opens on the lower part of the garden with the fountain and glades "de la Selva" (the forest).The... 

 breughel Says:  This is a really exceptional combination of architectural and garden beauty. The façade designed by Filippo Juvarra (also designer of the Madrid Palace), adapted and built between 1737 and 1743 by Sacchetti, looking on the parterre and the New Cascade is described as "one of... 

 breughel Says:  The large wrought-iron gateway dating from the reign of Felipe V but only installed in 1844 leads to the gardens (free entry most of the time) and to the south-west wing of the Palace called the Patio de la Herradura - The Horseshoe Courtyard. This courtyard in the shape of... 

 breughel Says:  When arriving at the collegiate church turn right to pass the Casa de Officios (with book and gift shop), then under the Arco de Infantes to reach on the left the entrance to the gardens and the west part of the Royal Palace in U form around the Horseshoe Courtyard.The... 

 breughel Says:  Passing by the huge trees of the Plaza de Espana one discovers the dome and towers of the Real Colegiata de la Santísima Trinidad - Collegiate Church built in the first half of the sixteenth century as a royal chapel by architect Teodoro Ardemans and later enlarged by Andrea... 

 breughel Says:  One of the most important buildings of the Royal Seat is the Casa de los Infantes dating from 1770 and built by Jose Diaz Gamones in the Baroque style and a classical rectangular shape with three interior patios for the servants of the princess (= Infantes) Don Gabriel and... 

 breughel Says:  At this plaza one discovers the wonderful combination of the architecture of the Palacio Real y Collegiata (Royal Palace and Collegiate) and superb trees planted in 1877 by the head gardener Antonio Testard. The Spanish firs and the two enormous Sequoias have grown superbly... 

 breughel Says:  From the Gate of Segovia the walk by the Alameda Avenue to the Palace is really nice thanks to the monumental royal buildings that appear behind the trees. On the left the Cuartel de Guardias de Corps (Guards' barracks), now transformed in the congress hall of the Parador,... 

 breughel Says:  Usually we go to more local restaurants but here it was late, the restaurant we had intended to go was closed, we were tired so that we stayed in the Parador for dinner and it was a good experience.Paradores always propose some local dishes and as we like to discover we took... 

 breughel Says:  I discovered the richness of the tapestries made in Brussels and Flanders first by a visit to Le Louvre "The Hunts of Maximilian" (12 tapestries from Brussels) and the Flemish Tapestries at the Museum of the Middle Ages - Cluny in Paris, later by my travels in Spain. It's...