Palace of the Convent of San Francisco facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Palace of the Convent of San Francisco |
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Palacio del Convento de San Francisco
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| Alternative names | Parador de Granada |
| Hotel chain | Paradores |
| General information | |
| Status | Used as hotel |
| Type | Palace, convent |
| Architectural style | Baroque, with older Moorish remains |
| Town or city | Granada |
| Country | Spain |
The Palace of the Convent of San Francisco is a special building in the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. It was once a palace built by the Nasrid dynasty in the Middle Ages. Later, it became a Franciscan convent.
After many years, the building started to fall apart. In the 1920s, it was carefully fixed up by Leopoldo Torres Balbás. Since 1945, this historic place has been a Parador hotel. A Parador is a fancy hotel run by the Spanish government, often in old, important buildings.
Contents
A Look at Its History
This palace is one of the oldest Nasrid palaces in the Alhambra. It was likely built in the late 1200s by a ruler named Muhammad II. The beautiful decorations you can still see today were added around 1370, during the time of Muhammad V. This means the palace might have been updated then.
From Palace to Convent
After the Granada War in 1492, Christian Spain took over Granada. The Catholic Monarchs, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, turned the palace into a Franciscan convent in 1494. It was called San Francisco de la Alhambra, named after Saint Francis. Most of the old palace was taken down, and a new church and convent were built by 1495.
When Queen Isabella passed away in 1504, she was buried here. Her wishes were to be laid to rest in a 14th-century room that was part of the old palace. In 1512, money was given to make the convent and its church even grander. When King Ferdinand died in 1516, he was also buried here. This was a temporary spot while a new burial place, the Royal Chapel of Granada, was being built. The bodies of both monarchs were moved to the Royal Chapel in 1521.
Later, in 1523, Emperor Charles V allowed the family of the Counts of Tendilla to be buried in the convent too. They were important governors of the Alhambra. Some parts of the old Nasrid palace were even used to build other areas of the Alhambra during the 1500s.
Repairs and Changes Over Time
By the early 1600s, the convent needed repairs. Letters were sent asking for money to fix it. In 1703, it needed more work, and by 1708, the church was almost falling down because of bad winter storms. This made the authorities finally provide funds for repairs.
In 1730, when King Philip V visited Granada, more big repairs started. More work happened between 1737 and 1738, costing a lot of money. In 1759, even more construction took place. These projects fixed the cloister (a covered walkway) and the church. They also added two chapels to the church. The bell tower you see today was built in 1787. Because of all these repairs, much of the building looks like it did in the 1700s.
During the early 1800s, when French soldiers occupied Granada, they used the convent as a barracks. They caused a lot of damage and even burned some of the palace's wooden parts for fuel. This made the Alhambra fall into disrepair. In 1832, some money was given to fix the damage. In 1840, the Spanish government bought the property.
Modern Restoration
By the early 1900s, the building was in very bad shape. From 1927 to 1929, Leopoldo Torres Balbás led a major restoration. He was the expert in charge of the Alhambra's buildings. During this time, archaeologists also started digging to find parts of the original Nasrid palace. More digging happened later, uncovering the palace's old hammam (bathhouse). These baths were studied and preserved in the early 2000s. In 1945, the fixed-up convent became a state-run Parador hotel, which it still is today.
The Nasrid Palace
The Nasrid palace had a very long courtyard with water and gardens. This courtyard was about four times longer than it was wide. A water channel, part of the main water supply for the Alhambra, ran through the middle of it. At both ends of the courtyard were large halls. Only the eastern hall, now called the Sala Árabe (Arab Hall), is partly left. It still has pieces of its original Nasrid-era stucco decorations.
The Mirador Chamber
One special part of the palace was a domed room in the middle of the north side of the courtyard. This square room has a large muqarnas (a type of decorative vaulting) ceiling. It has smaller rooms or alcoves on three sides. The northern alcove has three big windows that start near the floor. Above them are four small windows. These windows would have offered amazing views of the gardens and landscape outside.
The decorations in this room, from Muhammad V's time, included carved stucco. It also had zellij or tile decorations on the lower walls, but these are gone now. A poem carved near the windows calls this room a bahw, which is like a mirador (a lookout point). This type of room became a key feature of Nasrid architecture. This mirador is one of the most important Nasrid parts of the building today. It is also where Queen Isabella was first buried.
The Hammam
Next to the mirador, on the west side, was a hammam, or bathhouse. You could enter it through a side door near the mirador. It was built lower than the palace's water channels, making it easy to get water. The hammam had a waiting room with a fountain, a cold or warm room with a pool, and a hot room with another pool. Digging has shown that the hammam was once beautifully decorated with carved stucco and tiles.
The Convent
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The convent's church was located in what is now a small open courtyard. This courtyard leads to the 14th-century Nasrid mirador. The church had a single nave (the main part of a church). The Nasrid mirador was used as the capilla mayor (main chapel) of the church. This is where Isabella and Ferdinand were first buried. The arched entrance to this church, as seen today, was added when the church was made bigger in 1512.
The upper walls and the barrel-vaulted roof of the church are gone today. They fell apart in the late 1800s. So, the inside of the church has been open to the sky since then. The original floor of the church was probably lower than it is now. The choir, which is also gone, connected to the upper level of the cloister next door. Other chapels used to be on the west side. The arched spaces and windows on the east side, which connect to the cloister, were once used as altars. During the restoration work in the 1920s, a hidden crypt with human remains was found under the church.
Bell Tower and Cloister
The church's bell tower, built in 1787, stands near the entrance. An old Roman stone was found during its construction and moved to the city's archaeological museum. On the west side of the church is the cloister. In its current form, it is from the same time as the 18th-century tower. The cloister has a courtyard surrounded by a two-story gallery. This square courtyard is part of what was once the long main courtyard of the Nasrid palace. The old water canal of the palace used to run through the middle of this court. The arches of the cloister's galleries have Baroque-style decorations and Tuscan-style columns. The fountain in the center of the cloister is from the late 1400s.
Images for kids
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Remains of the convent's church today. This was the first burial place of the Catholic Monarchs.
See also
In Spanish: Parador de San Francisco para niños
