Built at the end of the 16th cen­tu­ry on a plan in the form of a grill, the instru­ment of the mar­tyr­dom of St Lawrence, the Escu­r­ial Monastery stands in an excep­tion­al­ly beau­ti­ful site in Castile. Its aus­tere archi­tec­ture, a break with pre­vi­ous styles, had a con­sid­er­able influ­ence on Span­ish archi­tec­ture for more than half a cen­tu­ry. It was the retreat of a mys­tic king and became, in the last years of Philip II‘s reign, the cen­tre of the great­est polit­i­cal pow­er of the time.