Philip II commissioned the Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, built between 1563 and 1584 to commemorate the Spanish victory at the Battle of St. Quentin in 1557. Juan Bautista de Toledo began the design, and Juan de Herrera completed it after Toledo's death in 1567. The style is called Herrerian, a Spanish Renaissance style.
The building is a vast rectangular enclosure, about 735 by 502 feet (224 by 153 m), with a floor plan described as a gridiron. Much of the stone is gray granite quarried nearby. The basilica has a Greek-cross floor and a large dome inspired by St. Peter's in Rome. The Royal Pantheon holds the tombs of most Spanish kings since Charles I, in twenty-six marble sepulchres. The library, 177 feet (54 m) long, holds more than 40,000 volumes.
UNESCO listed the complex as a World Heritage Site in 1984. Visitors now enter through the Patio of Kings.
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