The peculiar origin, character and functionality of San Lorenzo de El Escorial has been evident throughout history through the creation of numerous buildings and areas of interest that were recognized by the institutions in charge of watching over Spain's Historical Heritage.

Looking at the different categories in which the property is classified, we find in San Lorenzo de El Escorial the following Sites of Cultural Interest:

Monuments: those that constitute architectonic or engineering feats, or works of colossal sculpture when they are of historical, artistic, scientific or social interest.

Historical group: the grouping of buildings that form a settlement, either continual or disperse, conditioned by a physical structure representative of the development of a human community for being witness to its culture or constituting a value of use and enjoyment for the group. In addition it is any individualised nucleus of buildings comprised of a superior population unit that unites these same characteristics and that can be clearly demarcated. Certain Areas of the Royal Estate of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (1971).

Historical garden: the demarcated area, product of the organisation by man of natural elements, sometimes complemented by stonework structures, and deemed of interest regarding its origin or historical past or its aesthetic, sensorial or botanical value. Palace Gardens of the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (1931).

Historical site: it is a place or natural spot linked to events or recollections of the past, to popular traditions, cultural creations or of nature and to works by man, that possess historical, ethnological, paleonthological or anthropological value. Picturesque Place The Abantos Pine Forest (1961).