La Granja de San Ildefonso — Attraction in Real Sitio de San Ildefonso

The Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso was geographically one of the residences of the Spanish royal family and was the summer retreat of the kings of Spain. In 1717, Philip V also admired the beauty of this area. The Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso is one of the best examples of the glory of the 18th-century monarchy. Philip V decided to build a palace and gardens adorned with sculptures and fountains reminiscent of his childhood. He modeled his great personal masterpiece on the French palace of his grandfather, Louis XIV, and considered it the ideal place to retire. The gardens were as important to Philip V as the palace itself, and he devoted much of his time to them. The gardens of La Grande Palace are a type of French formal garden that began to spread throughout Europe in the late 17th century after the popularity of the works of André Le Nôtre. He made it clear that after his retirement his palace should resemble the Gardens of Mali, once inhabited by the little-known "Sun King". The abundance of water flowing down from the mountains was one of the main attractions of Philip V's gardens. This allowed him to create numerous fountains in the gardens, many of which were well supplied with water. The palace is located on the northern slopes of the Guadarrama mountain range, 13 km from Segovia and about 80 km from Madrid. La Granja de San Idelfonso derives from an old farm that the Hieronymite monks of the monastery of El Parral had nearby. The best known thing about the palace of Segovia is its beautiful and magnificent gardens. The water supply for the entire system is provided by the water collected by the surrounding streams into a pond called El Mar. Located at the highest point of the gardens, it has a capacity of 216,000 m³. It is fed back into eight ponds and reservoirs of different elevations to provide the right pressure for the various fountains. There are 29 fountains scattered throughout the garden, each equipped with a valve chamber or box with a key to open it. The pipes that make up the 300-year-old hydraulic system are mostly made of cast iron and have a diameter of up to 50 cm. The total length of each pipeline is about 13 km. If all the fountains were working simultaneously, an average of 9,000 cubic meters of water would be used per hour, which is equivalent to the amount of water consumed by the city of Segovia. The main tank would be completely exhausted in 13 hours. That is why the fountains never worked simultaneously and were designed to be turned on only when the king approached. The original hydraulic system is perfectly preserved and still...

La Granja was chosen as a destination purely for the gardens, built by Philip V at the turn of the 18th century and influenced by Versailles. There is also a palace attached to the gardens, La Granja de San Ildefonso, but that was closed on Mondays. We were staying at the Parador, about 10 minutes walk from the palace and gardens so after checking in and dumping our stuff in our rooms, we met up and walked to the gardens.

It was around 4PM and still oppressive but we walked in the shade where possible. The gardens were free to enter so we walked through the gates to be presented with a beautiful spectacle of low box hedges and dahlias, interspersed with statues. There wasn't a route to follow as such, or not one we noticed anyway, so we just meandered around through the gardens, avenues and woodland. There were lots of fountains, due to the abundance of mountain streams nearby, but none were active and most were empty although the original hydraulic systems are largely still in use. The statues were impressive and were made of lead but painted to look like copper and bronze and displayed the usual mythological scenes.

We eventually reached the vista over the cascade that flowed down through more ornamental gardens that fronted the palace itself. Or they would have cascaded if the whole area wasn't undergoing renovations and the entire cascade was being rebuilt. What had been done so far looked wonderfully impressive and I think Philip V would have approved but for us I think we arrived a year too early. We continued exploring around more pools and bridges and eventually, after maybe 90 minutes gentle walking, found a bench so Mum and Deb could sit in the shade for a while. We walked back, along the rear of the palace, to the entrance. We had seen maybe 3 other groups of visitors during our time in the gardens and were frustrated that, yet again, there was no...

El palacio de la Granja, el mercado, los jardines... son muchos los sitios que visitar en La Granja y además, su infinita gastronomía. Los judiones un clásico. Junto con sus asados. Hay mucha oferta gastronómica por toda la ciudad. En el parador se ofrece un menú de fin de semana también muy interesante. visitas: as fuentes corren los miércoles, sábados, domingos y festivos. A las 17:30 horas, los miércoles, sábados y festivos, y los domingos a las 13:00 horas. Se ponen en funcionamiento TODAS LAS FUENTES coincidiendo con las festividades del Real Sitio: 30 de mayo, festividad de San Fernando 25 de julio, festividad de Santiago Apóstol 25 de agosto, festividad de San Luis y Patrón de La Granja. Durante los meses de julio y agosto se pondrá en funcionamiento la fuente 'Baños de Diana' todos los sábados en horario nocturno, de 22:30 a 23:30 horas, para lo que se abrirá el acceso a los jardines a las 22:00 horas. El precio de la entrada será de 2 euros.

JARDINES Octubre y marzo: 10.00 a 18.30 h. De lunes a domingo. Abril: 10.00 a 19.00 h. Noviembre a febrero: 10.00 a 18.00 h. Mayo, primera quincena de junio y septiembre: 10.00 a 20.00 h. Segunda quincena de junio, julio y agosto: 10.00 a 21.00 h.

ERMITA DE SAN ILDEFONSO 15 junio a 15 octubre Lunes: Desde las 15.00 hasta treinta minutos antes del cierre de los jardines

LABERINTO Martes - domingo: 10:00 hasta 30 minutos antes del cierre de los Jardines de La Granja JARDÍN DE LA BOTICA 15 junio a 15 octubre sábados: 10:00 - 13:00 Visita previa reserva: 921 47 00 19/20 Existe acceso para personas con movilidad reducida y se dispone de sillas de ruedas manuales

TARIFAS Palacio Real de la Granja y Colegiata, Fuentes (cuando se ponen en funcionamiento), jardines y bosque Tarifa Básica: 9 €, validez 48 h. Tarifa Reducida: 4 €, validez 48 h Guía: 4 € Audioguía: 4 €. Fuentes Monumentales: 4 € Fuente Nocturna de los Baños...