San Idelfonso information
La Granja of San Idelfonso is situated 11 kilometres
from Segovia, at the foot of the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains
and set in unique natural surroundings is the Royal Residence
of La Granja de San Ildefonso, a grand and impressive palace begun
in 1721 on the site of an old lodging house.
King Felipe V retired here in 1724 and tried
to create a residence in the style of court at Versailles. In
order to do so, for the next 20 years he extended the gardens
and the palace, which was used as a summer residence by all his
successors until Alfonso XIII.
Several architects were involved in its construction and they
produced a beautiful mixture of the Spanish baroque and the French
style with subtle traces of Italian design. In the collegiate
church lies the tomb of the monarch, accompanied by his wife Isabel
de Farnesio. The palace visit takes in dazzling rooms which preserve
their period decoration, paintings by Panini and Flemish painting
from the 17th century, as well as beautiful tapestries gathered
in the museum, which contains, among other works, the series of
the Apocalyspe, from the 16th century.
The palace environment is made complete with spectacular gardens
containing a variety of species of plants and decorated with statues
and 26 monumental fountains, some of whose spouts throw jets of
water 40 metres into the air. The collection of historic buildings
is rounded off with the Royal Glass Factory of La Granja, an 18th-century
structure with an ongoing collection and other temporary exhibitions
devoted to the art of glass-making.