Real Sitio de San Ildefonso

The history of Real Sitio de San Ildefonso begins not here but a short distance away, at Valsaín, where Enrique IV of Castile built a hunting palace — the first of what would become the royal residential estates. That palace passed through the hands of later monarchs, including Philip II, who held wedding celebrations there after his fourth marriage at Segovia's Alcázar. Philip II also considered Valsaín as a site for a great monastery, though that project eventually landed at San Lorenzo de El Escorial. The Valsaín palace survived several fires and reconstructions until a major blaze in 1697, under Charles II, left it largely destroyed. It was never rebuilt.

The new Bourbon dynasty, arriving with Philip V in the early eighteenth century, chose a nearby royal hunting ground as the site for a replacement palace more suited to their tastes. Close to that ground stood a small monastery dedicated to San Ildefonso, dependent on the Jerónimo monastery of El Parral in Segovia. The Catholic Monarchs had granted the land to those monks in 1477, and by the time the Bourbons arrived, the monks were running a hospice, a farm, and orchards. Their chapel survives today inside the palace walls. Construction of the new palace began in 1721 and additions continued for generations.

As the palace grew, so did the town around it, drawing workers for construction, maintenance, and royal service. In 1727 Philip V established the Royal Glass Factory here, aiming to reduce costly imports of luxury glassware and protect Spanish manufacture. The project was driven by Ventura Sit with royal backing, starting with a small furnace for flat glass. A purpose-built factory of some 25,000 square metres followed, designed by royal master builder Joseph Díaz. The pieces produced there were exported across Europe, competing with the leading glassmakers of the day.

Under Charles III the town gained further shape: the urban centre was reorganised and enclosed with a wall extending from the existing palace perimeter. Charles III also moved the cemetery outside the town — the first place in Spain to do so, made possible because the town and its surroundings answered directly to the Crown through the Vere Nullius of San Ildefonso, rather than to the Bishop of Segovia. Meanwhile Valsaín, stripped of its palace, survived mainly through timber cutting and a sawmill at the nearby hamlet of La Pradera de Navalhorno.

The Royal Palace and its gardens are the centrepiece, with the ruins of the earlier Valsaín palace a short distance away. The old Royal Glass Factory building still stands, as does the Collegiate church and several churches including those of Los Dolores, El Rosario, and San Juan Nepomuceno, along with the Ermita de San Ildefonso. The former Casa de Infantes is now a Parador hotel.

Royal stables, the Guards' barracks, and a historic polo ground complete the picture of a working royal estate frozen in time.