La Granja

Last weekend, my Señora pretty much forced my roommate and I out of the house to see La Granja. At dinner on Friday, after we told her that we had nothing planned for the weekend, she stated that she was going to make bocadillos for us on Sunday and we were going. Sunday morning started out as a pretty gloomy day, but under our Señora's orders, we went. The day was cloudy, but the fog covering the mountains was gorgeous. The gardens were gigantic with random statues and fountains placed throughout. In art and architecture, we learned that La Granja was built by Philip V and was modeled after Versailles were he grew up. The palace and gardens were built during the Baroque period, a period of economic trouble for Spain. Because of this, in the palace many of the “marble” pillars and table tops are only wood treated to look like marble. Also, the doorways were placed directly across from each other in each room to where when a person looked down the hall, it looked like the rooms went on infinitely. This gave the palace the illusion that it was bigger than it actually was. The gardens were, unfortunately, not in bloom and the giant fountains were not running, but even so, La Granja was still a beautiful site.