Zafra, Little Seville: from Plaza Grande to the Dukes' Alcázar: a self-guided walk
By Alleytale
Dukes, merchants, two squares and the alcázar
The lords of Feria, later its dukes, walled the town and filled it with hospitals, convents and churches, while merchants worked the squares and Calle Sevilla and paid for altarpieces and mansions of their own.
The stops
Zafra's larger arcaded square began as the yard and graveyard of the old parish church. In the 1400s arcades went up along the edge of the graveyard to help trade, and when the church was pulled down and moved to its present site in the 1500s, the space opened up as the Plaza Grande. Over the years it has also been called Plaza Nueva, Plaza del Rey and Plaza de la Constitución.
Photo: Jl FilpoC — CC BY-SA 4.0 Work on this church began around 1527 at the initiative of the third Count of Feria, and by 1545 or 1546 the new building could take worship, though it was still unfinished. In 1609 it was raised to the rank of collegiate church. One altarpiece frames nine canvases that Francisco de Zurbarán painted in 1644 for a Zafra merchant, Alonso de Salas Parra, and merchants from the Cameros area of La Rioja who had settled in the town paid for the Valvanera chapel.
Photo: JnCrlsMG — CC BY-SA 4.0 The town hall occupies a palace built in the early 1500s by García de Toledo, brother of the third Count of Feria, which had the privilege of its own gallery opening into the Candelaria church beside it. In 1600 nuns of the Cross bought it as a convent, over the objection of the first Duchess of Feria, Juana Dormer, who wanted a Jesuit school there. The council moved in in 1881, and the marble-columned cloister court, a stone staircase and the old convent door have survived.
Photo: Zarateman — CC0 In the 1400s the rulers of Feria built two hospitals in Zafra for the sick and the poor, and this is the one named for Saint Michael. The oldest surviving foundation document is the will of the second countess of Feria, Constanza Osorio, from April 1480, in which she asks for it to be rebuilt. It stands on Calle San José, in what was the Jewish quarter, and its chapel and infirmary are Mudéjar. The altarpiece panel of Saint Michael by the Master of Zafra hung in the chapel until recently and is now in the Prado.
Photo: Gonzalo 11789 — CC0 This was the north gate of the walls that were built between 1426 and 1449 with a double purpose, to defend the town and to oversee it. The old gate sits in the tower beside the arch, under a niche with a relief of Saint James on horseback, a nod to the Order of Santiago that the Feria family was closely tied to. The wider arch next to it is a 17th-century addition, and part of the wall and the old gate have been recovered.
Photo: Gonzalo 11789 — CC BY 4.0 Just outside the Cubo gate stands the church of this Dominican monastery, founded in 1528 by María Manuel de Figueroa, countess of Medellín and daughter of the second Count of Feria. French troops set it on fire in 1810 and nearly ruined it, and its altarpiece was lost, but the image of the Cristo del Rosario survived and the people of Zafra rebuilt the church from 1816 with their alms. A local legend tells of the miraculous replacement of one of the Christ's arms.
Photo: Zarateman — CC0 This is the west gate of the walls that Gomes I Suárez de Figueroa began in 1426, named after Jerez de los Caballeros. On the outer face are images of the patron saints of the shoemakers' guild and a Castilian foot carved as a measure, a reminder that the walls were also meant to oversee local trade. A chapel above the arch holds the Christ of Humility and Patience, carried through the old town on Wednesday of Holy Week.
Photo: Zarateman — CC0 Zafra's oldest square was the heart of the medieval town, its council and its market, and weekly markets were authorised here from 1380. Traders checked their goods against the Vara de Zafra, a measuring rod cut along the shaft of one of the columns. A passage in the corner, the Arquillo del Pan, leads through to the Plaza Grande past the tiny baroque shrine of the Esperancita, whose original small statue from around 1400 is now kept in the Santa Clara museum, with a replica in its place.
Photo: Zarateman — CC0 At the end of a dead-end lane stands the Gothic doorway of the hospital that, according to the town's tourism office, Lorenzo II Suárez and María Manuela founded in 1438. It was also called the Hospital of the Salutation, and the niche over the door holds a painting of the angel Gabriel greeting Mary. A writer in 1887 ranked this portal, together with the alcázar, among the most interesting things Zafra had.
Photo: Jl FilpoC — CC BY-SA 4.0 Zafra is nicknamed Sevilla la Chica, Little Seville, and its main shopping street is described as a small Calle Sierpes, after the famous shopping street of Seville itself. At its south end stood the Puerta de Sevilla, a gate with a chapel of the Virgin of the Aurora on top that was pulled down in the 1800s, and at its foot cattle fairs were held on the field that is now the Plaza de España. Looking north, the Candelaria tower still closes the view.
Photo: Zarateman — CC0 The first lord of Feria founded this convent of Poor Clares in 1428 as the family's pantheon, and two of his daughters were its first abbesses. Its church holds the tomb sculptures of Garci Laso de la Vega and of the first count of Feria and his wife, and the museum, opened in 2007, shows about a thousand pieces from the convent's collection. The little Virgin of the Esperancita from the arch between the two squares is kept here, and so is the Virgin of the Aurora from the old south gate.
Photo: Zarateman — CC0 Hernán López Ramírez, a wealthy Zafra merchant, built this house around 1601, and its marble doorway has Doric columns in a classical composition. The main staircase has a wooden coffered ceiling and a Mudéjar dome, and the whole house takes its inspiration from the Italian Renaissance. Local tradition makes it the lodging of Don Juan José of Austria during the war with Portugal, but a study of his stay in Zafra (1660-1664) finds no document for that. What is recorded is that the duke of San Germán, of his general staff, chose this house as his residence. It now houses shops.
Photo: Zarateman — CC0 Lorenzo II Suárez de Figueroa began this fortress-palace in 1437 and it was finished in 1443, although the king's permission only arrived in 1441. It was planned more as a noble residence than a bulwark, Gothic in layout with Mudéjar decoration and a round keep as the symbol of the count's power. Around 1600 it was remodelled into a palace with a classical marble courtyard, and after centuries as barracks, prison, hospital and school it has been a Parador hotel since 1968.
Photo: Jl FilpoC — CC BY-SA 4.0
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