Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso

The Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso, known as La Granja, is an early 18th-century palace in the small town of San Ildefonso, located in the hills near Segovia and 80km north of Madrid, within the Province of Segovia in central SpainIt became the summer residence of the Kings of Spain from the 1720s during the reign of Philip V. The palace is in a restrained Baroque style, surrounded by extensive gardens in the formal Jardin à la française style with sculptural fountains. It is now open to the public as a museum.HistoryThe area was a favourite hunting grounds for many Castilian kings, due to its location on the forested northern slopes of the Sierra de Guadarrama. In the 15th century, Henry IV of Castile built the first hunting lodge on the site, along with a small shrine dedicated to San Ildefonso (saint Ildephonsus of Toledo), which gave this place its first name.Isabella I of Castile granted both buildings to the monks of the Santa Maria del Parral monastery in Segovia, who built an almshouse and developed a granja (farm) alongside the lodge and shrine.