Juan de Herrera
Juan de Herrera (Roiz, 1530 - Madrid, 1597) was a Spanish architect. He is best known for his magnificent work The Escorial (started by Juan Bautista de Toledo), 1562 to 1584. He became the favorite architect of Phillip II.
The Escorial is a complex of monastery, church, royal mausoleum, and palace. The site chosen was near the Guadarrama Mountains in the little town of El Escorial. All controversy over the extent of Herrera's contribution aside, the completed monument was the introduction of a style known traditionally as Herreran. The style is austere, symmetrical, and majestic, influenced by an Italianate, classicistic mannerism. Yet it is unique: its majesty is unforced; its formality is polyphonically muted; and its severity is a sovereign simplicity. 
Other works by Herrera, are in the Alcázar of Toledo and in the Palace of Aranjuez. In 1562, he wrote the book the Astronomical knowledge. As the royal inspector of monuments, he witnessed the imitation of the Herreran style in churches and palaces throughout Spain. 
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