Sacra Capilla del Salvador
This exceptional chapel was founded by Don Francisco de los Cobos y Molina, Commander Major of León of the Order of Santiago, Adelantado de Cazorla and many other titles granted by his Lord, Emperor Carlos I, of whom he was Secretary of State, and who served effectively in the management of the business of the Spanish Empire. Married to Doña María de Mendoza y Sarmiento, Countess of Rivadavia, he decided to build a family burial chapel in his city in keeping with his category in the Iglesia de Santo Tomás, now disappeared, where his family already had one. However due to differences with his priest, he made the decision to make a new and independent one, for which he commissioned the project to one of the best architects of the moment, Diego de Siloé, in 1536, locating it on land donated by the charity called Hospital de los Honrados Viejos del Salvador. The execution of the work was contracted to the local stonemason, Alonso Ruiz, and to, Andrés de Vandelvira, recently bequeathed to Úbeda. Due to differences between de los Cobos and Siloé, which motivated the suspension of the works in 1539, the following year a new contract was made with Vandelvira and Alonso Ruiz, without Siloé, but without forgetting his expertise, for which it is stipulated that the main façade, whose design had not been drawn up by him in his first project, would be the same as the Perdón de la Catedral de Granada, which Siloé was carrying out at the time. A decisive intervention in the sculptural decoration of the building had the Frenchman, Esteban Jamete, whose participation in this work had an important influence on the subsequent evolution of Vandelvira’s style.
Later, during the seventeenth century, the presbytery was the object of the addition of a Baroque rockery attached to the walls and the great baldachin, the work of García Pantaleón over the Central Chapel. In it, a large altarpiece, the work of Berruguete, also represents the Transfiguration of the Lord, with images that, except for the Saviour, were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War, later being the object of a documented and faithful restoration by the sculptor, Vasallo. The evangelists are a stone work by Luis de Zayas from the seventeenth century, and the apostles on the dome drum are a work carved by Antonio Medina in 1770, who also made the choir stalls, whose backrests are preserved in the sacristy. The gilding and paintings are the work of Ginés Navarro, from the eighteenth century. Declared a Site of Cultural Interest in 1931.
Located in Plaza Vázquez de Molina.
Opening Times:
Monday-Thursday, 10:00:14:30hrs and 16:30-20:00hrs.
Friday and Saturday, 10:00-20:00hrs.
Sunday, 11:30-15:00hrs and 16:00-20:00hrs.
Price:
General, €5. Over 65 and Groups > 4 personas (max. 20), €4,50. Children (8-15 years), €2,50 Free Entrance
Tuesday-Thursday, 10:00-10:30hrs.
Tel: 609 279 905