Madrid · Madrid
Escorial, El
Home to the largest Spanish building of the Renaissance — rectangular, overbearing and austere, resembling a prison more than a palace from the outside.
What Escorial, El is like
Portrait drawn from The Rough Guide.
Worth the trip
- The Real Monasterio del Escorial, built 1563-1584 to commemorate victory at the battle of San Quentin
- The Biblioteca, with the tenth-century Codex Albeldensis and St Teresa's personal diary
A little history
Felipe II planned the complex as both monastery and mausoleum, where he would live the life of a monk and 'rule the world with two inches of paper.'
Who it suits: Royal-history travellers
The numbers
The decision data — each figure against the Spanish average. Regional overlays and estimates are labelled, and where there's no local reading we say so plainly.
Climate
- Winter average temp
- 1°C 6.8°C below the Spanish average (7.8°C)
- Summer high (Jul–Aug)
- 22.9°C 7.3°C below the Spanish average (30.2°C)
- Rainy days a year
- 113 days 64% more than the Spanish average (69 days)
- Sunshine estimated
- 6.4 h/day 12% less than the Spanish average (7.2 h/day)
- Summer water stress (WEI+) regional estimate
- 44 12 below the Spanish average (56)
Cost & economy
- Home price
- no local data
- Net income per person
- €17,477 21% more than the Spanish average (€14,495)
- Income growth ’18–’23
- 24.3%
Safety
- Recorded crime regional estimate
- 55.1 per 1,000 25% more than the Spanish average (44 per 1,000)
Schools
- Schools in town
- 7
- Nearest international school
- 10 km
- PISA maths (region) regional estimate
- 494 13 above the Spanish average (481)
Healthcare
- Drive to a hospital
- 12 min
- Nearest health centre
- 4.7 km
- Surgical wait (region) regional estimate
- 50 days 54% less than the Spanish average (108 days)
Getting around
- Drive to nearest airport
- 54 min
- Fibre-to-home coverage
- 88% 9% above the Spanish average (79%)
- 100 Mbps+ coverage
- 92% 9% above the Spanish average (83%)
Who lives here
- Population
- 17,322
- Born in Spain
- 82.6% 6.2% below the Spanish average (88.8%)
- Born elsewhere in EU/UK
- 4.2% 0.4% above the Spanish average (3.8%)
- U.S.-born residents
- 2.54 per 1,000
Numbers: SettleSpain town dataset, derived from INE, AEMET, Mitma, Ministerio del Interior and the Catastro. National average = the unweighted mean across all 8,132 Spanish municipalities with data. A blank means no municipal-level figure is published — not a zero.
How does Escorial, El fit you?
These are the town's numbers. Whether it's your town depends on what you're optimising for — winter sun or mild summers, a city or a village, short medical waits, an easy flight home. The 3-minute quiz scores Escorial, El against every one of Spain's 8,132 municipalities on your priorities. It sits about 19 min from Collado Villalba, if that's your anchor.
Take the quiz — rank Escorial, El for you →Nearby towns
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