Declared a national historic-artistic monument. In 1509, Don Juan de Velasco, Bishop of Calahorra and La Calzada, obtained permission from Pope Julius II to found a monastery in Casalarreina. Construction began in 1514 and was completed in 1524, with the intervention of great masters such as Juan de Rasines and Felipe Virgany. It was inaugurated in 1522 by Adrian VI.
The monastery complex, inhabited by cloistered contemplative Dominican nuns since its foundation, is made up of the different cloistered rooms and the church, accessed through a rich Plateresque doorway with 4 pointed archivolts.

CHURCH

It has a large nave with five bays, with chapels between the buttresses and a large main chapel with transept arms and an octagonal chancel.
The main doorway opens in the third bay and is protected by a portico in a small temple covered with a dome on pendentives; the decoration of its columns is profuse with plant motifs, human and mythological figures.
The doorway resembles an altarpiece, with the lower section in the form of a triumphal arch and entrance under a lintel, flanked by the figures of Adam and Eve on pilasters. The tympanum depicts a representation of the Pietà, with a pelican, symbol of the Eucharist, at the apex. The upper part of the church is divided into streets, which include reliefs of the Last Supper, the Road to Calvary, the Arrest, the Flagellation and the Resurrection.
In the Presbytery, the classicist main altarpiece stands out, with a bench, two sections, an attic and five aisles, made around 1621, probably by Juan de Biniés and Pedro Martínez, with the pictorial collaboration of Juan de Lumbier. The minor altarpieces that can be seen in the side chapels are also interesting.
In the centre of the transept is the marble tomb of the founder Juan Fernández de Velasco.

THE MAIN CLOISTER

Together with two smaller cloisters, they connect and organise the different spaces.
Square in plan, it consists of five sections per side, and is attached to the south side of the church configuring two floors: the lower one with pointed arches and the upper one linteled, with a wooden roof on round pillars and four carved columns, with which it began.

Opening hours:

  • Tuesday to Sunday: Mornings: 11h, 12h, 13h, 13,30h. Afternoons: 16h, 17h, 17:30h.
  • From July to September: Mornings: 11h, 12h, 13h, 13:30h. Afternoons; 17h, 18h, 19h, 19:30h

Address

Contact Disabled by Owner
Plan My Route