Úbeda, the Renaissance of Vázquez de Molina: a self-guided walk

By Alleytale

Andalusian Renaissance and the Sacra Capilla

In the 16th century Francisco de los Cobos, secretary to Charles V, his relative Juan Vázquez de Molina, secretary of state to Philip II, and Bishop Diego de los Cobos of Jaén commissioned much of Úbeda's Renaissance, and Andrés de Vandelvira designed or built it.

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The stops

1. 1Clock Tower

   This tower on Plaza de Andalucía began as part of the medieval city wall, built in the 13th century beside the Toledo Gate, which the provincial tourism page calls the busiest entrance to the city. In the second half of the 16th century it was adapted to hold a clock and bell tower. It shows a copy of the Gothic painting of Our Lady of the Remedies, before which Charles V and later Philip II swore to keep the city's privileges; the original is kept in the Palacio de las Cadenas.

   

2. 2Royal Convent of Santa Clara

   The oldest convent foundation in Úbeda was set up in an undetermined year of the 13th century, and documents name the convent from 1290. Queen Isabella the Catholic stayed here in 1489 on her way to the siege of Baza. Behind the baroque doorway of 1779 hides a Mudéjar doorway with a multi-lobed arch, and Poor Clare nuns still live here, supporting themselves with the sweets they make by hand.

   

3. 3Palacio Vela de los Cobos

   Francisco Vela de los Cobos, a councillor of Úbeda, had this palace built in the middle of the 16th century, to a design by Andrés de Vandelvira carried out by the stonemason Jorge Leal. The stone façade has three floors: the central balcony carries the family coat of arms held by two telamones, a corner balcony is typical of the Andalusian Renaissance, and the top floor is an open gallery of round arches. It is not the Palacio de los Cobos, which was built for Francisco de los Cobos, secretary of Charles V.

   

4. 4Archaeological Museum of Úbeda

   The archaeological museum fills a Mudéjar house found during building works in 1964, arranged around a central patio and an example of domestic Mudéjar architecture of the 14th and 15th centuries. The museum began in 1972 as a section of the Jaén museum and was inaugurated here on 18 January 1973, and its founder Rafael Vañó Silvestre gave his own collection. Most of its pieces come from donations and digs across the province, among them Iberian votive offerings in bronze and terracotta.

   

5. 5Church of San Pablo

   San Pablo is one of the oldest churches in Úbeda, and until the 15th century the town council and the nobles met inside it. Its south doorway onto the square is Gothic, while the main doorway, called the carpenters' door, is Romanesque. Around the surviving Romanesque apse, carved corbels show a leaping, twisting dancer among musicians, minstrels and acrobats, and a 16th-century Renaissance fountain is attached to the east end.

   

6. 6Dean Ortega Palace

   Andrés de Vandelvira built this palace in the middle of the 16th century for Fernando Ortega Salido, dean of Málaga Cathedral, which gives it its name. The first chaplain of the Sacra Capilla was Dean Ortega, and the palace stands to the left of the chapel's main façade. English Wikipedia calls it one of the most important Renaissance palaces in Úbeda, and since 1929 it has been a Parador, a state-run hotel.

   

7. 7Holy Chapel of the Savior

   Francisco de los Cobos, secretary to Charles V, commissioned this chapel in 1536 as his burial church, attached to his palace. Diego de Siloé drew the first design and Andrés de Vandelvira carried out the building from 1540, while the richly carved doorway is the work of Esteban Jamete. The second tier of the doorway refers to the labours of Hercules, with a relief of the Transfiguration at its centre.

   

8. 8Hospital of the Honoured Elders

   This hospital for elderly and destitute Christians was founded in the middle of the 14th century by a brotherhood, at the request of Bishop Narváez. Francisco de los Cobos, secretary to Charles V and a native of Úbeda, assigned it an annual rent of 100 ducats, and in 1548 Vandelvira set the conditions for its church. Of the old layout, two arches of the courtyard, the chapel and the roof remain standing, and what survives is essentially Renaissance.

   

9. 9Vázquez de Molina Palace

   Juan Vázquez de Molina, Philip II's secretary of state and a relative of Francisco de los Cobos, had Andrés de Vandelvira build this palace between 1546 and 1565, laid out like a Roman house around a courtyard with a fountain at its centre. Some say the name, Palace of the Chains, comes from the chains round its forecourt; others trace it to the Dominican convent of Madre de Dios de las Cadenas that the palace became after his death. Now the town hall, it keeps the original Gothic panel of Our Lady of the Remedies, brought from the old Toledo square.

   

10. 10Vázquez de Molina Square

    This square is one of Spain's best examples of Renaissance architecture, and it was one of the reasons UNESCO declared Úbeda a World Heritage site in July 2003. Around it stand the Deán Ortega Palace, now a Parador, the Palace of the Chains that Juan Vázquez de Molina ordered, which is now the town hall, and the Holy Chapel of the Savior that Francisco de los Cobos built as his own pantheon. The fourth side holds the church of Santa María de los Reales Alcázares, raised on the ruins of the Moorish mosque, which mixes Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque and stayed closed for restoration from 1983 to 2011.

    

11. 11House of the Towers

    Also called the Palace of the Dávalos, this was a medieval palace built by the Constable Ruy López Dávalos, and a new building raised over the old one around 1520 is firmly documented. A plateresque doorway in three tiers is flanked by the two towers that give the house its name, although they are lower now than the originals. Its Renaissance patio, with a double arcade, was a model for the courtyards of the Hospital de Santiago and of Juan Vázquez de Molina's palace, and the building now houses the art school.

    

12. 12Hospital de Santiago

    Diego de los Cobos, bishop of Jaén, had this built as a hospital for poor sick people, together with a church-pantheon and a palace, to a design by Andrés de Vandelvira from 1562; the works ended in 1575, as the end wall of the staircase records. Austere yet grand, with a tower at each end of the façade and two more around the central chapel, it is sometimes called the Escorial of Andalusia. A great courtyard with a double arcade and Carrara marble columns lies inside, and a relief of Saint James, to whom the hospital is dedicated, marks the entrance.

    

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