The Royal Palace
The Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso, a grand and impressive complex, built on the site of an old hostel run by the Hieronymite monks from the Monasterio del Parral monastery in Segovia.Work began on the palace in 1721. In 1724 Philip V retired there in the hope of creating a royal residence after the style of the court at Versailles. To this end, the following twenty years were spent enlarging the gardens and the palace, which was used as a summer residence by Philip's successors up to the reign of Alfonso XIII.
The palace is surrounded by magnificent gardens containing a wide variety of plants and adorned with statues and 26 fountains, some of the spouts of which produce 40 m high jets, as is the case of those of the La Fama fountain. The site is completed with the La Granja Royal Glass Factory, an 18th century building that is home to a permanent exhibition, as well as other temporary ones, dedicated to the difficult art of glass-making.