The Royal Monastery of San Jerónimo in Granada is a Renaissance architectural ensemble made up of church and monastery, and is currently considered a BIC (Bien de Interés Cultural); the "basilica church of San Gerónimo" (sic.) was declared a historic-artistic monument worthy of being conserved by the Nation by 24 May 1877 and subsequently the monastery was declared a historic-artistic monument belonging to the National Artistic Treasure by decree of 3 June 1931.
Its foundation, prior to the capture of the city, is due to the Catholic Monarchs. It was then moved from Santa Fe to Granada, and it was in 1504 that construction of the current complex began. Most of the work is due to Diego de Siloé, although other architects and artists took part in its construction, such as Jacobo Florentino, Juan de Aragón, Juan Bautista Vázquez el Mozo, Pedro de Orea and Pablo de Rojas, the last three of whom belonged to the Granada school.
The church, with a Latin cross floor plan, is in the style of the churches of the Hieronymite Order, with a choir raised at the base and an altar behind a wide staircase. The Mannerist altarpiece in the main chapel, which is the starting point for Andalusian sculpture in its own right, and in which the work of the master Pablo de Rojas is of paramount importance, is particularly noteworthy. The rich Renaissance decoration, with coffered ceilings, scallops and sculptural groups, is a swan song of humanism in Spain. The iconographic programme was designed to highlight the military greatness and heroism of the Gran Capitán, who is buried in the transept with his wife, María de Manrique.
The monastery has two landscaped cloisters, the first of which contains the most genuine Renaissance decoration. Seven arcosolia like chapels, with classical traces, decorated with all the formal repertoire of this style, make up a funeral space for when the remains of Don Gonzalo arrived at the monastery. The second cloister, now the cloister of the community of Hieronymite nuns who live there, was the residence of Empress Isabella of Portugal on her wedding journey, after her marriage to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
Work on the church was already being carried out in 1513 under the orders of Jacopo Florentino. When Florentino died, Diego de Siloé took over. When the main chapel was finished in 1522, the bodies of the Great Captain and his wife were transferred from the Casa Grande of the Convent of San Francisco.
After going through several adverse vicissitudes, such as the French invasion and the exclaustration by expulsion of the Hieronymite Order, which almost led to the ruin of the architectural complex, the State decided to restore it, which was carried out between 1916 and 1920 by the architect Fernando Wilhelmi.
From 1963 onwards, the slender tower of the church was re-erected, after having been demolished by the French during the Napoleonic invasion to build with its stones the Green Bridge that links the Paseo de la Bomba with the Avenida de Cervantes, over the river Genil.
The doorway that separates the compass of the Monastery from Calle Rector López Argueta, although it originally belonged to the monastery, was replaced in the 1960s, after it disappeared in the 19th century and was subsequently abandoned in a farmhouse in the Vega.
Today, a beautiful image of the Virgen de las Angustias presides over the doorway, but it is not the one that was originally on the doorway.
At the beginning of 2004, the Ministry of Culture began restoration work on the main altarpiece, which lasted until the following year.
The church was the first in the world to be consecrated to the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
Article obtained from Wikipedia article Wikipedia in his version of 08/08/2022, by various authors under the license Licencia de Documentación Libre GNU.
