A Place for God on Earth
It still stands, solitary, stark and beautiful in the foothills of the Guadarrama mountains 40 minutes up the motorway from Madrid. ' The King of Spayne's Hows 'was what they called it - with sinister intent - in the England of Queen Elizabeth I... , King Philip of Spain conceived the idea of it and supervised its construction down to the smallest detail. It was his obsession. It was to be a palace, a monastery, a burial place for kings and queens, a treasure-house of paintings, sculptures, manuscripts and books, and in its very centre it was to have a mighty basilica church.
It was here that Philip II, who owned more than half the known world of his time, ruled his kingdom by correspondence from a small desk. It was here that he received news of the great victory of Lepanto and where later he was to plan the invasion and conquest of England -the Armada. This was where El Greco , one of the most magnificent of all painters, suffered his greatest failure. It was where some of the most enigmatic of the strange paintings of Hieronymus Bosch were gathered. It was where the scandalous Christ of Cellini was brought.
Few buildings in the world can tell us more about their founder than this one.
Dr Nicholas Baum , Sir Hugh Casson and Prof Hugh Trevor -Roper take you round the building and tell you its story.
Film cameraman JOHN MCGLASHAN , Sound GRAHAM HARE STANLEY MORCOM
Film editor JESSE PALMER Producer ANNE JAMES