El pudridero of the Escoril Monastery are rooms where tourists are not taken. They are not often told about. We are talking about three tiny rooms located just a few meters away from the Pantheon of Kings and Infantes. There, for long 20-30-40 years, the deceased members of the royal family.... rotting away. Yes, yes, rotting and waiting for their body to go through the process of natural mummification and it will be transferred to the pantheon for final repose.

The Royal Monastery of Escorial was built to commemorate the victory of Philip II's army over the French in a battle that took place in 1557 at Saint-Quentin in Flanders. From the very beginning, it was intended not only to commemorate the great victory, but also to serve as a tomb for kings and close relatives of the Habsburg dynasty.

In 1573, on the orders of Philip II, the remains of his father Charles V were transferred to the Escorial, followed by those of the rest of the Habsburgs. Then, their bodies were placed in a primitive tomb, which, almost a century later, Philip IV replaced with the majestic Royal Pantheon, which receives the bodies of deceased Spanish monarchs to this day. While receiving...

There is a good reason why, just before the entrance to the Royal Pantheon and the Pantheon of the Infants, where the remains of the vast majority of the Spanish royal family rest, there are three rooms shrouded in eternal mystery. This is the place where the Augustinian monarchs bring the accepted body of the deceased monarch or a member of his family. Not for nothing these rooms are called rooms of putrefaction, because here the body has to spend several decades, until a special doctor states that the decomposition processes have finished and the body is completely mummified.

Some of the guides who give tours of the Escorial, approaching these rooms give their voice a muffled and mysterious tone. They whisper that behind that door is a passage leading to a mysterious room with granite slabs on the floor, stone walls and a low vaulted ceiling. The total area of the room does not exceed 16 meters.

El pudridero is divided into two parts: one for the kings, the other for those members of the royal family who did not ascend to the throne and for the queens who did not give the Crown an heir

In the time of Philip II, the monastery was inhabited by monks of the Hieronymite order, but since 1885, the Augustinian monks have been in charge of guarding the three mysterious rooms, where not a single ray of sunlight penetrates. Access to the rooms is strictly limited.

Each body requires an individual time period in which it is completely mummified. Therefore, from time to time, a special medic comes to El pudridero to assess the degree of mummification. On average, this process takes between 25 and 40 years.

What is the ultimate goal of this strange ritual? It's simple, kings, to whom the most spacious palaces and castles were available during their lifetime, after death should occupy as little space as possible, for... that space is strictly limited. Together with the marble urn where his remains will be placed, the deceased monarch must not take up more than 1 meter in length and 40 cm in width!

In the mid-seventeenth century, Father Santos, reader of the Escorial's scriptures, put it this way: ‘They were so great in their lifetime that they don't need much space after they die.’

Brother José de Quevedo, librarian of the Escorial Monastery, in his book ‘History of the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial’ describes the ritual as follows:

‘The doors on the second landing of the staircase lead to the rooms of decay, around which more than one legend has been built up over the centuries.

El pudridero consists of three rooms, each of which resembles a small bedroom. There is no daylight and no ventilation.

After the funeral service, which accompanies the ritual of handing over the body of the deceased monarch to the care of the Augustinians, the abbot, accompanied by several monks, descends to the pantheon. There the body is already waiting for him. The monks are followed by the masons and some servants, who carry the coffin to the putrefying rooms.

The lead coffin has been placed in the beautifully draped Royal Coffin, but is now being removed. Yesterday's ruler of Spain lies in a dull lead box, while the outer, ceremonial coffin can be passed on to the next deceased if necessary.

While the masons are breaking down the wall of one of the rooms, the others make several holes in the bottom of the coffin, after which the coffin with the body is carried into the prepared room. There it is placed on four special wedges, which hold the coffin at a height of two or three inches from the floor.

After that, the masons re-burrow the wall that has just been destroyed.The corpses remain there for 30, 40 or even more years, until all the moisture is out of them and they no longer emit a putrid odour. Only then will they be moved to the appropriate pantheon.

There are currently two bodies in El pudridero for Infantes:

Jaime de Bourbon, second son of King Alfonso XIII;

Isabella Alfonsa of Bourbon-Sicily, granddaughter of Alfonso XII.

There are currently 23 vacant burial spaces in the Pantheon for Infantes.

Two bodies are also being prepared for burial in the Royal Pantheon - they are the grandparents of Spain's reigning monarch, Philip VI:

Juan de Bourbon and Battenberg;

Maria de las Mercedes Bourbon and Orleans

Once these two bodies are moved to the Pantheon, there will be no more empty seats. One can only wonder where the current monarch and his family will be buried.