History
The history of San Lorenzo de El Escorial is inexorably linked to the construction of the monastery and the town named El Escorial. The first historical references of this building date year 1558 where Philip II of Spain appointed a commission to find a proper place for the site, architects, doctors and quarrymen, among other guilds.
Hamlet El Escorial met physical conditions for carrying out such company. Its abundance of forests, quarries and game reserves, the quality of its water and its place in the geographic center of Spain, at the foot of the mount Abantos, were determining factors for the final choice, which took place in 1561.
Builders placed the first stone of the monastery on April 23, 1563. A year earlier, Philip II of Spain began efforts to acquire the land adjacent to the site of the future monastery, with the intention of creating a territory of realengo, real site de El Escorial, intended for agriculture, fishing, hunting and recreational uses. Among them were the Dehesa of the ironworks of Fuentelámparas (today called La Herrería), located in the current term of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, and La Granjilla of the Fresneda, farms in the neighbouring village of El Escorial.
Construction lasted 21 years, which transformed the urban and social environment of El Escorial. The hamlet became a villa in 1565. A Lord Mayor exercised rule over the villa. The Lord Mayor's authority did not extend to the game reserves that the Crown managed directly, nor to agricultural uses managed by the monastery's Prior.
Through two Papal Bulls issued dated 1585 and 1586, the Roman Catholic Church removed the monastery from the control of the powerful Archbishop of Toledo and placed it under the monastery's Prior.
This administrative structure remained well into the 18th century, when the monarch Carlos III imposed a new territorial and administrative framework. The construction of houses, expressly prohibited in the outskirts of the monastery, was the cause of a dispute that faced the municipal authorities, who promoted a modification of the rules, and those who sought to restrict new construction. The subject was particularly delicate in those days, given the frequent visits of the Royal family to the site; these visits led to an increase in demand for land to build houses and support buildings mainly for civil servants working in the Royal household.
The resolution of the conflict came from King Carlos III, who, on May 3, 1767, authorized housing next to the market of the monastery, which was the birth of the municipality of San Lorenzo de El Escorial and the beginning of a process which culminated in the emancipation of the town from El Escorial. The development of this new Hamlet was very fast, reaching a population of more than a thousand only a few years afterCarlos III allowed the town's expansion.
The new settlement emerging at the foot of the monastery did not achieve self-rule until much later. The administrative structure designed by Philip II of Spain was blurring, first with the appointment of a Governor by Carlos III—detrimental to the powers of the Lord Mayor and El Escorial's Prior—and, subsequently, with the privatization of land.
This was key to the structural development of the current municipality of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, since thisprivatization extended over most of the royal lands except for the Herrería farms, land surrounding the monastery, the Príncipe and the Infante Casitas.
On September 26, 1836, San Lorenzo de El Escorial became an independent municipality. In 1887, it elected its first mayor. To date, 22 people have served in this role.
During the Spanish Civil Ward (1936–1939), the people remained loyal to the Republican government and briefly changed the town's name to El Escorial of the Sierra.
Today the city of San Lorenzo de El Escorial consists of 12 localities: Colmenar of the Arroyo, Colmenarejo, El Escorial, Fresnedillas the olive, Navalagamella, Chavela Robledo, Saint Mary of the Alameda, Valdemaqueda, Valdemorillo, Villanueva of the pardillo and Zarzalejo, and the monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial.
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