Charterhouse of Jerez de la Frontera
Encyclopedia
The Charterhouse of Jerez de la Frontera or Charterhouse of Santa María de la Defensión is a monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

 in Jerez de la Frontera
Jerez de la Frontera
Jerez de la Frontera is a municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain, situated midway between the sea and the mountains. , the city, the largest in the province, had 208,896 inhabitants; it is the fifth largest in Andalusia...

, Cádiz, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. Its architecture is of a Late Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

 style, corresponding to the start of construction in the 15th century, with Baroque
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...

 aspects dating from the 17th century. The building, completed in the 17th century, has been designated by the Spanish government as an Historic-Artistic Monument (Monumento Histórico-Artístico). It was declared Bien de Interés Cultural
Bien de Interés Cultural
A Bien de Interés Cultural is a category of the Spanish heritage register. This category dates from 1985 when it replaced the former heritage category of Monumento nacional in order to extend protection to a wider range of cultural property...

in 1856.

The Renaissance
Spanish Renaissance
The Spanish Renaissance refers to a movement in Spain, emerging from the Italian Renaissance in Italy during the 14th century, that spread to Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries...

 entryway, designed by Andrés de Ribera, is of particular interest, as are the Chapel of Santa María, and the small Gothic cloister designed by Juan Martínez Montañés
Juan Martínez Montañés
Juan Martínez Montañés , known as el Dios de la Madera , was a Spanish sculptor, born at Alcalá la Real, in the province of Jaén. He was one of the most important figures of the Sevillian school of sculpture.His master was Pablo de Roxas. His first known work, dating 1597, is the graceful St...

. The choir stalls are by Juan de Oviedo de la Bandera (1565–1625); they were originally made for the Convento-Iglesia de la Merced in Sanlúcar de Barrameda
Sanlúcar de Barrameda
Sanlúcar de Barrameda is a city in the northwest of Cádiz province, part of the autonomous community of Andalucía in southern Spain. Sanlúcar is located on the left bank at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River opposite the Doñana National Park, 52 km from the provincial capital Cádiz and...

 and were transferred to the monastery in 1960. The paintings by Juan de la Roelas currently at the monastery also come from that church. Conversely, the Museo de Cádiz preserves numerous paintings by Francisco Zurbarán
Francisco Zurbarán
Francisco de Zurbarán was a Spanish painter. He is known primarily for his religious paintings depicting monks, nuns, and martyrs, and for his still-lifes...

 that were originally from the monastery.

Nowadays, the Sisters of Bethlehem, Sisters of the Assumption of the Virgin, and Sisters of Saint Bruno continue the long Roman Catholic monastic and spiritual tradition that had been carried on more than five centuries by the Carthusian fathers.

History

The impulse behind the monastery dates back to Alvaro Obertos de Valeto
Alvaro Obertos de Valeto
Alvaro Obertos de Valeto . Noble knight, a jury of Jerez and pious founder gave the land for the construction of the Charterhouse of Jerez de la Frontera, whose first stone was laid on December 17, 1478, worked in his work as an operator and it is more his tomb.- Biography :Genoese family of...

, a knight of Genovese
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

 descent, appointed during the Reconquista
Reconquista
The Reconquista was a period of almost 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms succeeded in retaking the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula broadly known as Al-Andalus...

by Alfonso X of Castile
Alfonso X of Castile
Alfonso X was a Castilian monarch who ruled as the King of Castile, León and Galicia from 1252 until his death...

 to defend the city shortly Alfonso had conquered it from Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 rule in 1264. Lacking descendants, he left his fortune to establish a Carthusian monastery in the city. It was not until 1475 that this location near the Guadalete River was chosen, of special significance because in 1368 it has been the site of a victorious battle against invaders; the victory was attributed to intercession
Intercession
Intercession is the act of interceding between two parties. In both Christian and Islamic religious usage, it is a prayer to God on behalf of others....

 by the Virgin Mary, to whom a hermitage
Hermitage (religious retreat)
Although today's meaning is usually a place where a hermit lives in seclusion from the world, hermitage was more commonly used to mean a settlement where a person or a group of people lived religiously, in seclusion.-Western Christian Tradition:...

 had been dedicated on the site, under the name Nuestra Señora de la Defensión ("Our Lady of the Defense"), which was adopted also for the monastery.

At the entrance of the enclosure stands a wide tetrastyle portico with a semicircular central span which holds, in a smaller span, two heavy sheets of wood studded with bronze. This work, begun in 1571 by Jerezan architect Andrés de Ribera, conforms to the purest canons of Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...

n classicism. Conceived as a great triumphal arch
Triumphal arch
A triumphal arch is a monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, crowned with a flat entablature or attic on which a statue might be...

, it is composed in a sober manner and decorated with coats of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

, canopies, fretwork windows, and glazed ceramic hemispheres, constituting a superb example of Renaissance architecture.

At the beginning of the 17th century, with the original plan almost complete, new works were undertaken, such as the façade of the church, which was totally renovated in 1667 in a clearly Baroque
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...

 style, following the plans of Brother Pedro del Piñar, who also placed atop the crests of the church and refectory niche sculptures by Francisco de Gálvez.

Like a veritable stone altarpiece, this façade is conceived in two orders superposed on Corinthian columns and curved and divided entablature
Entablature
An entablature refers to the superstructure of moldings and bands which lie horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and are commonly divided into the architrave , the frieze ,...

s, supported on a base decorated with coats of arms and floral themes. The ornate decor of pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....

s and frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...

s, the superposition of vases, and the airy top, with a much reduced third rank of imagery make this façade a singular element of the Andalucian Baroque.
In the interior, of particular note are the choir stalls of the Coro de Padres, a magnificent work in carved wood, completed in 1550; the replacement of the old altarpiece in the Flemish style by Alejandro de Saavedra, José de Arce and Francisco de Zurbarán, as well as the group of paintings on wood by Zurbarán for the walls of the sanctuary, now mostly in the Museo de Cádiz.

In 1810, during the Peninsular War
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...

, the French invaders used the monastery as a barracks, and damaged or destroyed much of the complex that had been assembled over the prior three centuries. The monks were obligated to seek refuge in Cádiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....

, and when they returned, it was to a desolate, sacked monastery.

Restored and returned to its original use, and now in a good state of conservation, the monastery was designated a Monumento nacional in 1856, one of the first dozen or so places in Spain to be so designated. More recently, it has been designated an Historic-Artistic Monument.

It can be reached by the CA-2004, accessed from the Autovía A-381
Autovía A-381
The Autovía A-381 is a highway in Andalucia, Spain.It connects Algeciras with Jerez de la Frontera taking a spectacular route through the Parque Natural de los Alcornocales.-External links:**...

.

External links

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