This past weekend was pretty relaxed for the most part. On Friday, three of my friends and I went to Reina Sofia which is a contemporary art museum. It is one of the "Big Three" of Madrid, in addition to El Prado and The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. We saw some really weird stuff that makes you wonder how in the world the piece came to be displayed in a museum. One example is a video of a guy trying to teach a plant the alphabet? Again, I'm not sure what the significance of it was. But for every weird piece of "art" there were plenty more that were really cool and interesting. I enjoyed the abstract paintings the most. I loved getting the opportunity to see works done by Goya, Dali, and Picasso, among others. The most famous piece we saw was Picasso's "Guernica" which was commissioned by the Spanish government to serve as a Spanish Civil War protest. They also had pictures of the process, and each individual aspect of painting which was fun to look at. Saturday, we wanted to get out of the city for the day so we hopped on a train and headed to Escorial, which is just about an hour outside of Madrid. We were hoping to see San Lorenzo of El Escorial which is the enormous monastery of the city and the Valle de los Caidos (valley of the fallen). What we didn't realize was that it would take the entire day to make our way through the monastery, because it is just that big! It began with the museums that were inside. There was an Architecture Museum which took us through the construction of the building: how they did it, how long it took, what they used to do it. We also went through about twelve different rooms with various paintings which were interesting. I think all of them were from King Phillip's private collection which consisted of over 1,600 works. There was also a Hall of Battles which consists of fresco paintings depicting some of Spain's most important battles. Easily the coolest parts of the monastery were the Pantheon of Kings and Pantheon of Princes! This is where all of the kings and queens of the Habsburg and Bourbon dynasties dating back to Charles I. The pantheon was in an underground chapel, with the sepulchers surrounding you once you entered. The Pantheon of Princes consisted of a number of rooms with various niches containing the bodies of the children of the royal dynasties who never made it to the throne. The basilica was next and I have to admit that I think it was more imposing than that of Notre Dame because it was a lot more open. The dome is about 100 meters high and there are several frescos painted on the ceilings. We were all able to take some time to just appreciate it, light a prayer candle, and then headed over to the library which was what I had been really looking forward to (being a librarian and all). The library is one of the most beautiful in the world and seems like its covered in gold. On the ceiling is decorated with frescos depicting the seven liberal arts: Rhetoric, Dialectic, Music, Grammar, Arithmetic, Geometry, and Astronomy. There was also an original model of the universe according to Ptolemy which was really interesting. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures in the monastery so any pictures I did take were done inconspicuously and may not have come out as well as I would've liked. Other than that the trip was a success. I enjoyed the monastery and all it had to offer, and since it was free to get out there using the train to the suburbs, I hope to make it back there to see the Valle de los Caidos. Thanks for listening and tune in next time for my summary on the Las Fallas festival in Valencia that I'm going to this Saturday!
The Monestary
Reina Sofia
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