La Granja was built as a “summer house” for the Spanish royal household in the 18th century. In fact, “La granja” means “the farm” - which makes me think those people had no idea what a farm looks like.
The palace is surrounded by huge gardens containing 26 monumental fountains. In fact, I did not take the the photo from the top of a set of stairs, but from the top of a fountain. Nowadays, the fountains don’t work; the water they use is not “recovered”so it would be terribly wasteful to turn them on. They are only turned on one or two days a week during the summer - not all at the same time, just three or four, and only for a little while, so people can still enjoy them in these limited periods.
How the other half live eh? Super shot.
Ian