The history of San Lorenzo de El Escorial is inexorably linked to the construction of the monastery and the town named El Escorial. The first historical references of this building date year 1558 where Philip II of Spain appointed a commission to find a proper place for the site, architects, doctors and quarrymen, among other guilds.
Hamlet El Escorial met physical conditions for carrying out such company. Its abundance of forests, quarries and game reserves, the quality of its water and its place in the geographic center of Spain, at the foot of the mount Abantos, were determining factors for the final choice, which took place in 1561.
Builders placed the first stone of the monastery on April 23, 1563. A year earlier, Philip II of Spain began efforts to acquire the land adjacent to the site of the future monastery, with the intention of creating a territory of realengo, real site de El Escorial, intended for agriculture, fishing, and hunting and recreational uses. Among them were the Dehesa of the ironworks of Fuentelámparas (today called La HerrerĂa), located in the current term of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, and La Granjilla of the Fresneda, farms in the neighbouring village of El Escorial.
Construction lasted 21 years, which transformed the urban and social environment of El Escorial. The hamlet became a villa in 1565. A Lord Mayor exercised rule over the villa. The Lord Mayor's authority did not extend to the game reserves that the Crown managed directly, nor to agricultural uses managed by the monastery's Prior.
Through two Papal Bulls issued dated 1585 and 1586, the Roman Catholic Church removed the monastery from the control of the powerful Archbishop of Toledo and placed it under the monastery's Prior.
This administrative structure remained well into the 18th century, when the monarchCarlos III imposed a new territorial and administrative framework. The construction of houses, expressly prohibited in the outskirts of
