Source: National Heritage

This Sunday in 365 days in Madrid We want to focus on a monastery with great historical significance. He monastery of Our Lady of the Visitation, better known as Monastery of the Royal Barefoot. A monastery of cloistered nuns, of the order of the Coletine Poor Clares, founded no less than in 1559 by Joan of Austria, widow of the prince Juan Manuel of Portugal, sister of the king Felipe II and mother of the future Portuguese king Don Sebastian.

Its location in the heart of Madrid, in what we know today as Barefoot Square, very close to the Puerta del Sol, right in front of the Monte de Piedad building and its splendid Cover by Pedro de Ribera.

The classicist-style building from the 16th century houses important works of art inside, the result of its magnificent relations with royalty. A Castilian plateresque palace, which has marble columns from Genoa in the patios and halls decorated with tiles and plasterwork of the Moorish tradition, but with forms already from the Renaissance. It must be remembered that in front of the monastery building the kings and princes of Asturias were proclaimed on various occasions, undoubtedly a symbol of the importance given to this place.

The monastery occupied a huge space in which there was an old palace that at the time Doña Juana acquired it, was property of the treasurer of Carlos V. The builder directed the works Diego Sillero, but the church's authorship is unclear. It is thought that it could have been John the Baptist of Toledo, to whom the facade is assigned, in classical style. However, the layout of the church, with a single nave covered with a barrel vault with lunettes, seems to correspond to the Italian engineer. Francesco Paciotto, whom Philip II called to Spain to take care of the work of El Escorial. Juan de Mora In 1612 he took care of the altar steps, the choir and the sacristy. Gaspar Becerra He made the main altarpiece in 1565, sadly disappeared in a fire in 1862, being the author of the architecture, its paintings and sculptures. The architectural aspect of the interior corresponds to the remodeling carried out in the mid-XNUMXth century by Diego de Villanueva.

A magnificent work of art that is undoubtedly one of the essential visits in Madrid, a shame that the remodeling works of the Barefoot Square have been so disastrous for the conservation and enjoyment of heritage. The monument, like others related to the Royal House, depends on National Heritage which is where you should go for your visit.

A abrazo.