Located 4km (2 1/2 miles) east of the center of Burgos, this florid Gothic charterhouse was founded in 1441. King Juan II selected it as the royal tomb for himself and his second wife, Isabel of Portugal. By 1494, the church was finished, its sober facade belying the treasure-trove of decoration inside. The stunning attraction of the interior is the sculptured unit in the apse, said to have been built with the first gold brought back from the New World. It was the work, in the late 1400s, of Gil de Siloé, who also designed the polychrome wood altarpiece. The remains of the king and queen lie in the white-marble mausoleum, designed like an eight-pointed star. The tomb’s decorators gave these parents of Isabel I a fine send-off with exuberant, Gothic decorations such as cherubs, pinnacles, canopies, and scrolls.