The Royal Barefoot Monastery. Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales.
Description:
The Royal Barefoot Monastery is a convent founded by Juana of Portugal, daughter of King Charles I in 1557. This monastery also bears the name of St. Clara. The founder of the monastery Juana of Portugal, the youngest daughter of the Spanish kings Charles I and Isabella of Portugal, at the age of 17 married the heir to the Portuguese throne Juan Manuel of Portugal. After two years of happy marriage, Juan Manuel dies of tuberculosis. 3 weeks after the death of her husband, Juana had a son, the heir to the Portuguese throne, Prince Sebastian. At the insistent request of her father, King Charles, Juana was forced to return to Spain to become regent of the Spanish king in Valladolid. In Portugal, her 4-month-old son remains, who will later take the Portuguese throne, but for the rest of her life, Juana will not see her son.
Juana of Portugal never married again, devoting her life to serving the Spanish crown and God. In the house where she was born, she founded a monastery that occupies an ancient palace owned by Alonso Gutierrez, the imperial treasurer. Upon his return from Portugal, Juana buys the palace from Gutierrez’s heirs and orders the architect Antonio Siliero to remodel the palace to fit it into a convent. Juana conceived a building that would include a convent, a charity hospital, a school for orphaned girls from noble families. But Juana never saw the finished monastery, as she died in 1573.
In this monastery took tonsure and secluded from the bustle of the earth ladies of noble families and royal blood. The first 33 nuns who settled here decorated the monastery with family portraits, tapestries, icons. All this wealth belonged to them and their families, and was donated as a gift to the monastery. There is a rich collection of paintings, icons, carpets, donated to the monastery by queens and princesses who lived there. Part of the collection is stored in the Prado Museum, instead of them, copies are posted in the monastery. But several masterpieces are located in the monastery, for example, tapestries (trailers) according to sketches by Rubens. The tapestries were woven in Brussels on the drawings of Rubens, the main theme of which is the Apotheosis of the Eucharist (Holy Communion - the most important rite recognized by all Christian faiths). Among the masterpieces located in this monastery, it is impossible not to mention the magnificent decoration of the main staircase with paintings by Claudio Coelho, Pantoja de la Cruz. The art gallery of the monastery contains works by Zurbaran, Titian (?), Bruegel the Elder (?). The monastery contains the tombs of Don Juana of Portugal and Empress Maria of Austria.
Until 1960, the monastery was closed to outsiders and only in 1960, with the consent of the nuns and with the blessing of the Vatican, the monastery was partially opened to the public. In order not to violate the habitual way of life of nuns, the rules of visiting the monastery are strict and strictly followed. A visit to the monastery is possible only in a group, buying a ticket in advance with a certain tour time.