La Granja
7/9/2025
We took a short bus ride outside of Segovia to La Granja de San Ildefonso. The bus trip was kind of an adventure as there was nothing accurate about the time tables or on line information. Google maps didn’t recognize the route at all, but Rome2Rio did. Sidenote - We find Rome2Rio much better for finding what is really available for public transportation options, but they lack detail. So once we are actually in the process of going on the adventure, we like to pull up google maps to track ourselves and watch the bus (or train) route and stops. But you can’t really get the detail you would like if google maps doesn’t recognize the route as existing.
So, back to our day… off we went on our next leap of faith! When we got on the bus at the main bus station in Segovia, we had the nicest driver. He didn’t speak a lick of English, but held up the entire line of passengers to ask us where we were going through a translator app on his phone – kind of a slow process as far as conversations go. And once we told him, he said he would tell us when to get off. And he did. Then when we got off, he put a whole paragraph into his translator explaining where we should walk to get the palace and where to pick up the bus for the return trip to Segovia… which we didn’t fully comprehend, but we nodded and said gracias and set out on our adventure!
The La Granja palace was initially built in the 15th century as a hunting lodge for the monarchy, then turned over to some monks for about a hundred or so years. In the 1720’s when King Louis V from France came to rule Spain, he liked the location, so he bought it back from the monks and renovated it to become his primary home. He patterned it after his childhood home the Palace of Versailles, which was built by his grandfather.
We went on a Wednesday because they crank up some of the fountains in the garden on Wednesdays. They were beautiful! They were no Versailles to be sure, but definitely worth seeing. They only had 4 fountains going, and each for only 10 minutes. So you had to be in the right place at the right time to catch them. It was like a cattle call with a hoard of people going from one fountain to the next in time for them to crank it up!
And sculptures… holy crap was old Louis V into his sculptures! The palace and grounds were full of them. And some were pretty weird! I have lovingly titled the last photo in the gallery below “Renaissance Child Porn” – I mean seriously! What is that about!
He was also into crystal chandeliers, so in 1727 he established the Royal Glass Factory just down the road. The factory made all the chandeliers and other pretty glass stuff for the palace and for other royal residences throughout Spain. We took a quick stroll through the Crystal Factory before heading back to Segovia. It was kind of interesting.
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