Philip II wanted a monastery, a palace, a royal tomb and a college all in one building, and in the 1560s he got it, in the shadow of the Sierra de Guadarrama. The Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial took about twenty years to build, under the architects Juan de Herrera and Juan Bautista de Toledo, and it is made of pale grey granite, severe and symmetrical, with slate spires and almost no decoration outside. The king had vowed to build a monastery to St Lawrence after a victory over the French at St Quentin in 1557, and the plan of the building is said to echo the gridiron on which the saint was martyred.
Inside, the scale is stunning. The basilica has a huge dome, the library holds thousands of rare volumes under a painted vault, and beneath the high altar lies the Royal Pantheon, where most of Spain's kings since Charles V are buried in marble and bronze. The rooms Philip lived in are surprisingly modest, with a window that looks straight onto the altar, so that he could follow Mass from his bed in old age.
The town sits at around a thousand metres on the southern slopes of Mount Abantos, so the air is cooler and cleaner than in Madrid, an hour away, and many Madrileños come here to escape the summer heat. The mountain roads are the draw for a rider: climbing from the town toward the pine forests, with tight bends and long views back to the monastery, they are quiet on weekdays and busy on sunny weekends. In winter, snow and ice can close the higher routes, and in spring the stone pines and broom smell strong in the sun.
San Lorenzo has about eighteen thousand people and has all the fuel, food and beds you need. Local cafes sell pastries in the shape of the king's crown, and the roast lamb and suckling pig of Castile are never far away. The ride that starts here crosses the Guadarrama to the beech forests of Ayllón, a good contrast with the severity of the granite, and the early start is worth it, because the great building is at its best in the morning light, with its shadow long on the plaza.