el escorial was more than an impressive palace for a divine monarch.h. king phillip built in austerity: plain white walls and bare-bones chandeliers. his simple bed, with a mattress that's not even queen-size, came with a view of the high altar in the basilica just next door. the basilica, the architectural and spiritual heart of the complex, is dedicated to the martyr st.laurence. the altar features a painting of the flame-engulfed grill with st. laurence meeting his fiery death. downstairs, the royal pantheon is the gilded resting place of four centuries of spanish kings and queens. there's a strict filing system. the first and greatest, charles the fifth, and his queen, flank the altar on the top shelf. their son, phillip the second, rests below charles and opposite his wife, and so on. because kings might have married more than once, to make it here, a woman needed to be both queen and mother of a king. the immense library shows that knowledge was a priority for the spanish royalty. the ceiling celebrates the seven classical disciplines with a burs