In this final video, we will have a look at literally the greatest Renaissance palace in the world.
We'll also check in from a little mountaineering expedition.
But first, we have a message from the esteemed sponsor of this video.
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Now back to the video at hand.
Men of culture and enlightenment, aka those who read my book reviews will know that I have for some time now had an urge to summit Mount Kemnikaise in good old Sweden.
Now I have still to do that.
I must mount an expedition whenever I get the time to do so.
I did something similar though.
I had the opportunity to summit Mount Peñalara here in good old Spain.
Shout out to Alonso for the valiant company.
So Mount Peñalara is actually higher than Mount Kemnikaise, but since we start from a higher position already, it's not quite as big of an expedition.
But still it was a really nice day, a good training session.
Took five hours.
The ascent, that part of the loop, was a bit more arduous than the descent.
And of course, as you might see on the video, footage, absolutely stunning views.
And we actually saw San Ildefonso.
We will return to this sacred place in a separate video.
But yeah, I was quite excited to see that from the peaks.
So good times, good stuff.
I can definitely recommend that you get out in nature on these expeditions to absorb as much divine energy as possible.
Now I encourage you to admire the majestic nature as well as my physique.
And after that, we will have a look at El Escorial.
Now, as you might have suspected, this last footage is actually from the Atlantic.
It's just so epic and nice that I had to use it again and I will probably use it more times as well.
So anyway, on to the great Renaissance Palace of El Escorial.
Now this majestic palace, it was built between 1563 and 1584 by order of King Philip II.
And that is the son of Charles V, an absolute one of the most powerful men of all time.
We'll get back to him in just a bit, but first I will explain what I found so fascinating with this great place.
So you have this, it's a whole complex, it's a massive building where you have different places inside of the buildings.
You have the library which we spent most of our time in here, my beloved wife and I.
It was just so aesthetic, so epic, so many details to look at.
So I tried to do justice by filming most of it then.
So the library here you see before you.
So the interesting part here is that you have in El Escorial in this massive building you also have a great basilica.
And of course it's a church so you have plenty of Christian iconography or rather European Christian.
And when I say European Christian, I mean that you have this classical beautiful angels.
So so not this biblically accurate angels.
You might have heard it's a bit of a meme to say biblically accurate, but yeah anyway, you have a beautiful angel, is a European angel, heavily inspired by paganism, of course.
So you have Christian elements in the palace, and then you have the library, and here you can see you have on the artwork on the walls, you have Apollo, for example, you have Hercules, you have Pan, you have many different pagan elements, and then, of course, they celebrate various sciences, and the sciences are depicted as pagan goddesses, so you can see Philosophia, for example.
So interesting stuff, for sure.
So the Renaissance can be seen as a revival of paganism and, of course, a time of scientific exploration, a time of art, a time of aesthetics, also a time of chaos, but during chaotic times you can have this great artistic expressions, some thinking about Italy in particular.
We'll return to this topic later on, but that's what I have to say about the Renaissance.
Now while we're admiring this great artwork.
I suppose many of you know that I am an enjoyer of calligraphy, so I took the time to admire this fine book right here, and as a gentle book publisher as well, I got inspired greatly by the absolute beauty of this tomb of knowledge.
Now let us return to the aforementioned Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
Allow me to read his many illustrious titles for you so you can admire his splendor.
Holy Roman Emperor, Archduke of Austria, King of Spain, Lord of the Netherlands, titler Duke of Burgundy, Head of the Great House of the Habsburgs.
During his reign he spent a lot of time fighting the rising threat to the East.
By this time, of course, quite a powerful entity.
I am talking about the Ottoman Empire.
Suleiman the Magnificent was his contemporary.
So in the Hall of Battles in El Escorial, you can see some depictions of wars fought against the Moors as well as against the French.
So the French and both the Holy Roman Empire and Spain always been rivals, which is natural if you look at the geography.
Now the Reconquista, it wasn't the end of battles between Europe and the global south, North Africa, the Barbary Coast, the Ottomans.
This continued in the early modern period as well.
So even after, as I mentioned in the latest video and in the latest podcast, Spain managed to complete the Reconquista completed the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 1492.
The battles continued because you had the Barbary coast and they commenced slave raids on European coasts well into the 1800s until the French conquered a lot of territory there.
And also for my American friends and my Swedish friends, I'm happy to report that there was a joint military expedition.
So the US and Sweden fought against the Barbary Corsairs and this is known as the First Barbary War from 1801 to 1805.
Shout out and much love to my brothers in good old America and of course shout out to the French and the Spanish and the Portuguese as well who fought against the menace of this pirates and we finally put an end to it.
Good stuff, good times.
Now on a similar note I just have to say it as well big shout out to the other European nations who fought against the Ottomans on the other side of the Mediterranean.
Big topic, we will definitely return to it in coming videos and podcast episodes.
That all being said I can definitely recommend that you visit El Escorial if you are in Spain.
Now we are checking in briefly from Madrid and then you might ask me, compassionate one, should I visit Madrid?
I would say that it should not be a priority.
You have certain nice things in Madrid, you have the royal palace and you have some nice museums as well and you see this nice fountain and some and some statues of Visigothic kings as well but otherwise Madrid is not something I would give priority.
The other smaller places outside of Madrid they are more worth I'd say in my humble opinion at least.
So you have here again El Escorial, you have Segovia, you have Toledo, San Ildefonso, all of these places a lot more beauty and a lot more culture.
And Madrid, it's like most European capitals, I would say it's not a particularly pleasant place to be.
Now if you do have the time, I would recommend a visit to the Royal Palace, but maybe a day or two that could be enough for a visit to Madrid if you are tight on time.
So thank you for watching.
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