Casita del Príncipe (El Escorial)
# Casita del Príncipe (El Escorial)

The Casita del Príncipe (Spanish for 'Cottage of the Prince') is an eighteenth-century building located in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain. It was designed by the neoclassical architect Juan de Villanueva for the private use of the heir to the Spanish throne Charles, Prince of Asturias, and his wife Maria Luisa. It was constructed in the 1770s and extended in the 1780s.

The word casita is the diminutive of the Spanish word for "house". The building was designed without bedrooms, as its owners slept in the palace which had been built two centuries earlier for Philip II. Such buildings gave their royal occupants the opportunity to escape some of the formalities of court life. The Petit Trianon at Versailles offers a French example of the phenomenon.

## Setting

The building is set in a formal garden. The garden is in turn set in a walled park.

The garden, which is on several levels, is delineated by box hedges in 18th century style. It also features some exotic conifers, such as Sequoiadendron giganteum, a species introduced to Europe in the 19th century, and Abies nordmanniana (see note).

## Interior

The interior is decorated in neoclassical style with some Pompeian influence.

There is a Sala de Porcelana on the upper floor. This room features jasperware plaques in neoclassical style. Reminiscent of the work of the English Wedgwood company, the plaques were made in Madrid in the 1790s by the Real Fábrica del Buen Retiro.

## Conservation and access

The building is protected as part of a World Heritage Site. Under Spanish law it was declared Bien de Interés Cultural in 1992.

Guided tours of the ground floor are offered by the Spanish heritage organisation Patrimonio Nacional, and tickets can be obtained at the property.

