Palace of Charles V The
Palace of Charles V is a Renaissance construction located on the top of the hill of the Assabica, inside the
Nasrid fortification of the
Alhambra. It was commanded by
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, who wished to establish his residence close to the Alhambra palaces. Although the
Catholic Monarchs had already altered some rooms of the Alhambra after the conquest of the city in 1492, Charles V intended to construct a permanent residence befitting an
emperor. The project was given to
Pedro Machuca, an architect whose biography and influences are poorly understood. Even if accounts that place Machuca in the
atelier of Michelangelo are accepted, at the time of the construction of the palace in 1527 the latter had yet to design the majority of his architectural works. At the time, Spanish architecture was immersed in the
Plateresque style, still with traces of
Gothic origin. Machuca built a palace corresponding stylistically to
Mannerism, a mode still in its infancy in Italy.
El Escorial El Escorial is the historical residence of the king of Spain. It is one of the
Spanish royal sites and functions as a monastery, royal palace, museum, and school. It is located about northwest of the Spanish capital, Madrid, in the town of
San Lorenzo de El Escorial. El Escorial comprises two architectural complexes of great historical and cultural significance: El Real Monasterio de El Escorial itself and
La Granjilla de La Fresneda, a royal hunting lodge and monastic retreat about five kilometers away. These sites have a dual nature; that is to say, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, they were places in which the temporal power of the
Spanish monarchy and the ecclesiastical predominance of the
Roman Catholic religion in Spain found a common architectural manifestation. El Escorial was at once, a monastery and a Spanish royal palace. Originally a property of the
Hieronymite monks, it is now a monastery of the
Order of Saint Augustine. Philip II of Spain, reacting to the
Protestant Reformation sweeping through Europe during the sixteenth century, devoted much of his lengthy reign (1556–1598) and much of his seemingly inexhaustible supply of New World silver to stemming the Protestant tide sweeping through Europe while simultaneously fighting the Islamic
Ottoman Empire. His protracted efforts were, in the long run, partly successful. However, the same
counter-reformational impulse had a much more benign expression thirty years earlier, in Philip's decision to build the complex at El Escorial. Philip engaged the Spanish architect,
Juan Bautista de Toledo, to be his collaborator in the design of El Escorial. Juan Bautista had spent the greater part of his career in Rome, where he had worked on the
basilica of St. Peter's, and in
Naples, where he had served the king's viceroy, whose recommendation brought him to the king's attention. Philip appointed him architect-royal in 1559, and together they designed El Escorial as a monument to Spain's role as a center of the Christian world.
Plaza Mayor in Madrid The
Plaza Mayor in Madrid, built during the
Habsburg period, is a central
plaza in the city of Madrid, Spain. It is located only a few blocks away from another famous plaza, the
Puerta del Sol. The Plaza Mayor is rectangular in shape, measuring 129 by 94 meters, and is surrounded by three-story residential buildings having 237 balconies facing the Plaza. It has a total of nine entranceways. The
Casa de la Panadería, serving municipal and cultural functions, dominates the Plaza Mayor. The origins of the Plaza date back to 1589 when Philip II of Spain asked
Juan de Herrera, a renowned Renaissance architect, to discuss a plan to remodel the busy and chaotic area of the old Plaza del Arrabal. Juan de Herrera was the architect who designed the first project in 1581 to remodel the old Plaza del Arrabal but construction did not start until 1617, during Philip III's reign. The king asked
Juan Gómez de Mora to continue with the project, and he finished the porticoes in 1619. Nevertheless, the Plaza Mayor as we know it today is the work of the architect
Juan de Villanueva who was entrusted with its reconstruction in 1790 after a spate of big fires.
Giambologna's equestrian statue of Philip III dates to 1616, but it was not placed in the center of the square until 1848.
Granada Cathedral Unlike most cathedrals in Spain, construction of this cathedral had to await the acquisition of the
Nasrid kingdom of Granada from its Muslim rulers in 1492. While its very early plans had
Gothic designs, such as are evident in the
Royal Chapel of Granada by Enrique Egas, the construction of the church in the main occurred at a time when Renaissance designs were supplanting the Gothic regnant in Spanish architecture of prior centuries. Foundations for the church were laid by the architect Egas starting from 1518 to 1523 atop the site of the city's main mosque; by 1529, Egas was replaced by
Diego de Siloé who labored for nearly four decades on the structure from ground to cornice, planning the
triforium and five naves instead of the usual three. Most unusually, he created a circular capilla mayor rather than a semicircular apse, perhaps inspired by Italian ideas for circular 'perfect buildings' (e.g., in
Alberti's works). Within its structure the cathedral combines other orders of architecture. It took 181 years for the cathedral to be built. Subsequent architects included Juan de Maena (1563–1571), followed by Juan de Orea (1571–1590), and Ambrosio de Vico (1590–?). In 1667,
Alonso Cano, working with Gaspar de la Peña, altered the initial plan for the main façade, introducing
Baroque elements. The magnificence of the building would be even greater if the two large 81-meter towers foreseen in the plans had been built; however, the project remained incomplete for various reasons, including finance.
Granada Cathedral had been intended to become the royal mausoleum for Charles I of Spain, but Philip II of Spain moved the site for his father and subsequent kings to El Escorial outside of Madrid. The main chapel contains two kneeling effigies of the Catholic King and Queen, Ferdinand and Isabel, by Pedro de Mena y Medrano. The busts of Adam and Eve were made by
Alonso Cano. The Chapel of the Trinity has a marvelous retablo with paintings by El Greco, Alonso Cano, and
José de Ribera (The
Spagnoletto).
Cathedral of Valladolid The
Cathedral of Valladolid, like all the buildings of the late
Spanish Renaissance built by Herrera and his followers, is known for its purist and sober decoration, with its style being typical Spanish
clasicismo, also called "
Herrerian". Using classical and Renaissance decorative motifs, Herrerian buildings are characterized by their extremely sober decorations, their formal austerity, and its like for monumentality. The cathedral has its origins in a late Gothic college that started in the late 15th century. Before becoming the capital of Spain, Valladolid was not a bishopric and thus lacked the right to build a cathedral. Soon enough, though, the Collegiate became obsolete due to the changes of preference during the period, and thanks to the newly established episcopal in the city, the Town Council decided to build a cathedral that would share similar architecture to neighboring capitals. Had the building been finished, it would have been one of the biggest cathedrals in Spain. When the building was started, Valladolid was the
de facto capital of Spain, housing King Philip II and his court. However, due to strategic and geopolitical reasons, by the 1560s, the capital was moved to Madrid, making Valladolid lose its political and economic relevance. By the late sixteenth century, Valladolid's importance had been severely reduced, and many of the monumental projects, such as the cathedral, started during its prosperous years, had to be modified due to a lack of proper finance. Thus, the building that stands now could not be finished completely, and due to several additions built during the 17th and 18th centuries, it lacks the purported stylistical uniformity sought by Herrera. Although mainly faithful to the project of Juan de Herrera, the building would undergo many modifications.
Significant architects Renaissance and Plateresque period •
Alonso de Covarrubias •
Juan de Herrera •
Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón •
Pedro Machuca •
Francisco de Mora •
Diego de Riaño •
Hernán Ruiz the Younger •
Diego de Siloé •
Juan Bautista de Toledo •
Andrés de Vandelvira Early Baroque period •
Domingo Antonio de Andrade • Eufrasio López de Rojas •
Juan Gómez de Mora ==Music==