Royal Monastery of Santa Clara of Tordesillas

ORIGINS

You cannot begin to describe the convent of Santa Clara de Tordesillas without making special mention of its architectural origins, since it combines styles dating from the period between the 12th and 18th centuries.

The earliest building, raised by Alfonso XI, had the classic structure of Muslim palaces, but its remains were overlaid with the Mudejar palace where Peter I was born and lived after ending the dynastic conflicts with his lover, Maria Padilla.

In his will, King Peter ordered his daughter Beatriz to transform the palace into a residence for the Poor Clares, and in 1363, the convent of Santa Clara was founded, fulfilling the king's wish.

The entrance to the palace, the hall, the golden chapel and the entrance courtyard have been preserved. On the façade are the two keys to paradise in green ceramic, an Arab symbol that was identified with the power to open and close the gates of heaven.

Next to the keys, there are two tombstones with monastic letters describing the battle of El Salado; a victory to which the building was dedicated as a tribute. The importance of this battle for the Crown of Castile should not be underestimated, as it gave the kingdom control of the Straits of Gibraltar, and the power to prevent invasions from Africa.

While walking among the lobed and horseshoe arches of its Moorish courtyard, you can imagine Alfonso XI planning the conquest of Algeciras and other crusades in Andalusia.

 

ISABELLA AND VALLADOLID

Valladolid and its province were decisive in the life of Isabella I of Castile. It was there that she married Ferdinand II. The royal couple later took up residence in Tordesillas and she died a few kilometres away, in Medina del Campo.  On her deathbed she made a will naming her daughter Joanna as heir, although it had already been established that if she could not reign, her husband Ferdinand would inherit the throne until her grandson, the future Charles V, came of age.

In 1494 the royal delegates of Spain and Portugal met in Tordesillas, in the so-called Treaty Houses, to sign the agreement on their overseas domains. The Treaty of Tordesillas proved to be transcendental for history, as it set the stage for what was to be an era of discovery, the first time that borders were placed on the ocean.

 

A WALK THROUGH ART

As did king Alfonso XI, the Avenger, we enter the golden chapel of the convent, which welcomes us with blind arches on columns with Corinthian capitals. It is covered by a hemispherical Almohad dome, a typical feature of mosques, in the place reserved for the caliph's prayers.

Its long choir, with its walnut stalls, was the provisional church until the temple of the convent was finally consecrated.

The distribution of the Arab baths is the same as in the Almudaina, arranged in order of use: warm, hot and cold. The barrel vaults, supported by columns and horseshoe arches, are illuminated by skylights in the shape of eight-pointed stars that served as vents for the steam to escape.

The Gothic church of the convent of Santa Clara in Tordesillas was built as a new construction in the mid-15th century, attached to the old palace. The altarpiece in the main chapel was made of alabaster during the last years of Joanna of Castile's life, and it features a Gothic depiction of Calvary.

The chapel of the Saldaña family houses one of the most important Gothic sculptural groups of its time, and in the presbytery, the space surrounding the altar of the main chapel, you can see the splendid five-plane wooden ceiling on an octagonal frame, with rich strapwork, gilding, polychrome decoration and four central pine cone bosses. It is a true masterpiece of the Castilian Mudejar style.

 

THE POOR CLARES

This monastery is dedicated to St. Clare of Assisi, who had the courage to ask an astonished pope for the privilege of poverty.

Behind its Romanesque grille, the cloistered congregation of the Poor Clares has observed important moments in the history of Spain since the 14th century. The battle plans of the Reconquista, dynastic struggles, births, wakes like that of Philip the Handsome organized by Charles V and the imprisonment of traitors to the Crown.