Monastery of Saint Mary of Guadalupe: Difference between revisions

Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Cloister of the Real Monasterio de Santa María
Criteria	Cultural: iv, vi
Reference	665
Inscription	1993 (17th Session)

The Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Guadalupe (Spanish: Real Monasterio de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe) is a Roman Catholic monastic establishment in Guadalupe, Cáceres, a province of the Extremadura autonomous community of Spain. It is located at the feet of the eastern side of the Sierra de las Villuercas and was one of the most important monasteries in the country for more than four centuries. UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 1993.

History

The monastery had its origins in the late 13th century, when a shepherd from Cáceres, named Gil Cordero, discovered on the bank of the Guadalupe River a statue of the Blessed Virgin, which had been apparently hidden by local inhabitants from Moorish invaders in 714. On the site of his discovery a chapel was built, dedicated under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

King Alfonso XI, who visited the chapel more than once, invoked Santa Maria de Guadalupe in the Battle of Rio Salado. After gaining the victory, he ascribed it to the Madonna's intercession, declared the church at Guadalupe a royal sanctuary and undertook an extensive rebuilding program.

In 1389, the Hieronymite monks took over the monastery and made it their principal house. Construction works continued under the auspices of the order's first prior, and in 1474 Henry IV of Castile was entombed in Guadalupe, next to his mother.

The monastery has rich associations with the New World, including the Guadeloupe island in the Caribbean. It was here in Extremadura where Christopher Columbus made his first pilgrimage after discovering America in 1492 and where he first thanked heaven for his discovery. It should not be confused with Our Lady of Guadalupe, a highly revered icon in the Mexican Basilica of Guadalupe, which has an homonymous name of Nahuatl origin.

Even after the monks from Guadalupe founded the famous monastery of Escorial, which was much closer to the royal capital, Madrid, Santa Maria de Guadalupe retained the royal patronage. It remained the most important cloister in Spain until the secularization of monasteries in 1835. In the 20th century, the monastery was revived by the Franciscan Order and Pope Pius XII declared the shrine a "Minor Papal Basilica" in 1955.

Overview of the main facade and the square that lies before it.

Monuments

File:Cloister Real Monasterio de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe.jpg

One of the two cloisters (the Mudéjar) of the monastery.

The monastery, whose architecture evolved throughout many centuries, is still dominated by the templo mayor, or the main church, built by Alfonso XI and his immediate successors in the 14th and 15th centuries. The square chapel of Santa Catalina is also of the 15th century; it is known for a cluster of ornate 17th-century tombs. The 16th-century reliquaries chapel connects Santa Catalina with the baroque sacristy (1638–47), lavishly decorated and boasting a series of paintings by Zurbarán.

Behind the basilica is Camarin de la Virgen, an octagonal baroque structure (1687–96) with the impressive stuccoed Chamber of the Virgin and nine paintings by Luca Giordano. The jewel of this profusely ornamented hall is a throne containing the statue of the Madonna which gave the monastery its name.

Other notable structures include the Mudéjar cloister (1389-1405), with the magnificent Plateresque portal; the late Gothic cloister from 1531–33, and the new church, commissioned by one of Columbus's descendants in 1730. Regrettably, the palace of Isabella I of Castile (1487–91) was pulled down in 1856.

The sanctuary is divided into:

• Stewardship or portería
• Basilica Temple (finished in 15th century)
• Mudéjar cloister (finished in 14th century)
• Gothic cloister and Hospederia (finished in 14th century)
• Temple of the Holy Trinity (finished in 18th century) (since 1978 dedicated to Auditorium)
• Embroidery Museum: liturgical vestments made in its embroidery workshop and includes pieces that cover the period between 15th and 19th centuries
• Museum of Books and Cantonals: more than ninety examples are exhibited, gigantic cantonals and 15th century two passionaries.
• Museum of sculpture and painting: include paintings by Goya and El Greco, along with carvings Anequín Brussels and Egas Cueman, and a crucified Christ ivory attributed to Michelangelo. The canvases of Zurbarán are in the old sacristy.

• Liturgical clothing in embroidery museum
  Liturgical clothing in embroidery museum
• 
  Coronation of the Virgin, by El Greco. 1591.
• 
  Confessions in Prison. Goya. 1808-1812.
• 
  Virgin of Guadalupe

Burials

• Denis, Lord of Cifuentes

External links

• Materials from the World Heritage website