La Granja de San Ildefonso Palace, Segovia, Spain

The Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso, known as La Granja, is an early 18th-century palace located in the hills near Segovia.

The site was purchased from the monks in 1719 by King Philip V, after his summer palace nearby at Valsaín burned down. Beginning in 1721, Philip began building a new palace and gardens modeled on Versailles, built by his grandfather, Louis XIV of France. Like Versailles it embraced a cour d'honneur on the approaching side, and formal gardens, with a main axis centred on the palace, that were surrounded by woodland in which further hidden garden features were disposed. Like Versailles, La Granja began as a retreat from the court but became a centre of royal government.

When the King decided to abdicate in 1724, his intention was to retire to La Granja. Unfortunately Philip's heir, King Louis I, died that same year, and Philip had to return to the throne. Consequently, a place designed for leisure and quiet retreat thus became an important meeting place for the King, his ministers and the court. The town of San Ildefonso expanded to provide housing and services to the courtiers who wanted a place near the king's favourite residence. Military barracks, a collegiate church (1721–1724), and even a royal glass factory (1728) were built to provide for the palace.

The church was selected as his burial site by Philip, marking a break with his Habsburg predecessors. The frescoes by Giambattista Tiepolo, completed by Francisco Bayeu, were badly damaged in a fire of 1918.

Philip's successor Ferdinand VI bequeathed the royal site of San Ildefonso, with all it contained, to his father's second wife, Isabel Farnese. At her death in 1766, it reverted to the Crown in the person of Charles III.

For the next two hundred years, La Granja was the court's main summer palace, and many royal weddings and burials, state treaties, and political events took place within its walls.

Currently the royal site is part the Patrimonio Nacional of Spain, which holds and maintains many of the Crown's lands and palaces. It is a popular tourist attraction, with gardens, and interiors displaying rooms with marble from Carrara, Japanese lacquer, and crystal chandeliers; portraits and other paintings; and a Museum of Flemish tapestries.

Extending over 6.1 km2, the gardens around the palace are one of the best examples of 18th-century European garden design in Spain. The French designer from the official French royal offices of Robert de Cotte was René Carlier, who used the natural slope of the site in the palace grounds design, for enhancing axial visual perspectives, and to provide sufficient head for water to shoot out/up from the twenty-six sculptural fountains in the formal gardens and landscape park.

References:

Wikipedia

User Reviews

James Threapleton (12 months ago)
Stunning castle in the foothills of Spain's largest mountain range. The castle is very interested and architecturally impressive. But the gardens and fountains are not to be missed.

Jeremy Balzer (12 months ago)
Truly an amazing place with a rich history, but the wind blew some branches off some trees, so they closed the entire garden/grounds! Also, besides a single small placard listing not even half of the artwork in each room, there is no historical information at all. They clearly expect you to pay more for that information.

B K (12 months ago)
I wasn't sure I will (as I am not a big fun of visiting another old time palace and spending €10 on that), but surprised myself to the bits. Highly impressive collection of unique pieces of art, letting us understand the past times of XV-XVI century. Interesting to learn about different colors of stones that emigrated from all sorts of indifferent places as well as tty to recognise the meaning behind enormous size paintings and pictures. Not even mentioning variety of watches of different shapes and colours. Such a wonderful way to spend Sunday afternoon. Highly recommended.

Angelina Heerens (2 years ago)
Beautiful place as always. A pleasure to be back, the terraces of the restaurants at the entry of San Hildefonso de la Granja are colourful with an abondancy of roses. The gardens of the palace wonderfully maintained offering a peaceful enjoyable walk.

Mark Buckingham (2 years ago)
Lovely grounds and gardens. Spent a few hours wandering around just enjoying the peace and quiet. Really well kept grounds and not too busy when we went but I imagine it could be in the summer when everything is open. I would go again but when the fountains are in operation as they were off when we were there.

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The Château de Foix dominates the town of Foix. An important tourist site, it is known as a centre of the Cathars. Built on an older 7th-century fortification, the castle is known from 987. In 1002, it was mentioned in the will of Roger I, Count of Carcassonne, who bequeathed the fortress to his youngest child, Bernard. In effect, the family ruling over the region were installed here which allowed them to control access to the upper Ariège valley and to keep surveillance from this strategic point over the lower land, protected behind impregnable walls.

In 1034, the castle became capital of the County of Foix and played a decisive role in medieval military history. During the two following centuries, the castle was home to Counts with shining personalities who became the soul of the Occitan resistance during the crusade against the Albigensians. The county became a privileged refuge for persecuted Cathars.

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Since 1930, the castle has housed the collections of the Ariège départemental museum. Sections on prehistory, Gallo-Roman and mediaeval archaeology tell the history of Ariège from ancient times. Currently, the museum is rearranging exhibits to concentrate on the history of the castle site so as to recreate the life of Foix at the time of the Counts.

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