The building is one of the largest stone structures in Europe, occupying a huge rectangle measuring 185x147 meters! Only the El Escorial, the gargantuan palace-monastery close to Madrid which was commissioned by Philip II, surpasses its size in Spain. In fact, the Romantic English traveller Richard Ford called it “Escorial tabaquero”! It was built between 1728-1757 by a team of military architects from the Netherlands, including Sebastian van der Borcht, and masters from the North of Spain, who collaborated with local architects to create a building that is diverse and hybrid with a strong emphasis on neoclassicism and the presence of various baroque elements, such as those of the main façade, which bears the royal coat of arms and an inscription of the structure’s main patron, King Fernando VI of Bourbon. Defensive medieval features, such as a moat and a drawbridge, are also visible and one could not help but observe that the product manufactured here must have been considered extremely valuable!