Escorial

   On 10 August 1557, the feast day of St. Lawrence, Philip II of Spain vowed at the Battle of San Quentin that, if his troops emerged victorious against the French, he would build a monastery in the saint's honor. The Spaniards won the battle, an event that eventually led to the peace of Cateau-Cambrésis between France, England, and Spain (1559). Philip fulfilled his promise by building the Monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial (beg. 1563). He charged Juan Bautista de Toledo with the task and, when Toledo died in 1567, his pupil Juan de Herrera took over the project, bringing it to completion in 1584. The complex includes a palace for the king, his family, and courtiers, a seminary, basilica, and royal crypt. Its gridlike design, punctuated by four towers at the corners, two campaniles, and the dome of the basilica, is thought by some to have been inspired by the grill of St. Lawrence's martyrdom. Others see the building's plan as a modernized version of the Temple of Solomon described by Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian of the first century. If this is the case, then the architecture would speak of Philip as the new Solomon, the biblical builder hailed for his wisdom. Philip brought a team of Italian masters to El Escorial to decorate the complex, among them Fabrizio Castello, Pellegrino Tibaldi, and Luca Cambiaso. The Spanish artists Juan Fernández de Navarrete and Alonso Sánchez Coello were also involved, as was El Greco.