Architecture

Dominican priory, La Guardia de Jaén

The Dominican priory of La Guardia de Jaén (Spanish: Convento de Santo Domingo de La Guardia de Jaén), known from its dedication as the Convent of Santa María Magdalena de la Cruz (Spanish: Convento de Santa María Magdalena de la Cruz), was founded for a community of friars of the Dominican Order (otherwise the Order of Preachers) in the town of La Guardia de Jaén in the province of Jaén in Andalusia, Spain. Construction at the current location began around 1539. The priory was shut down and confiscated during the Trienio Liberal (1820–1823), and the buildings are now mostly ruined. The church however remains in use as the present Church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (Spanish: iglesia parroquial de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción). At first Gothic in style, its layout initially followed a design by Domingo de Tolosa. It was later extensively revised by Andrés de Vandelvira, who imprinted his personal Renaissance stamp on the church and the cloister loggia. Although the contract signed by Vandelvira set an execution period of two and a half years, his work actually took 26 years, which led to a new commission for Francisco del Castillo el Mozo, who undertook the construction of the vaulted ceiling over the choir, the enclosure of the west end and the completion of the loggia (or gallery) of the cloister with the addition of a fountain dedicated to Mary Magdalene, the patron saint of the priory. This fountain is dated 1577, which is considered to be the end of this last construction period, and indeed of all construction on the convent. After the priory was suppressed, the conventual buildings were partly converted for use for commercial purposes and partly abandoned and allowed to fall into ruin. The church was in use as the parish church by about 1850, the previous parish church having been reduced to ruins by the French in 1812. In more recent years, those conventual buildings which had not fallen derelict underwent further, more drastic conversion for industrial use by the San Sebastián Olive Oil Cooperative.

Also on this shelf

See also

• ▸Garden room
• ▸Anomochlooideae
• ▸Eliel Saarinen's Tribune Tower design

Uncatalogued shelf

Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.