Monastery and Site of the Escurial, Madrid

Philip II ordered a monastery-palace on the slopes of the Guadarrama laid out, tradition says, on the gridiron of St Lawrence's martyrdom. Completed at the end of the 16th century, El Escorial fused royal residence, basilica, library and royal pantheon behind an austerity that broke with Spanish tradition and shaped the country's architecture for over half a century. In the twilight of Philip's reign it was the nerve centre of the greatest power of the age. UNESCO inscribed the site in 1984.