Convent of the Calced Augustinians, Toledo

Main facade of the church of the convento de las Agustinas.

The convento de las Agustinas Calzadas in Toledo (Spain), is structured around a small courtyard that acts as a distributor element; consists of a series of dependencies, functionally conceived for the life of its inhabitants, juxtaposed one to another. It corresponds basically to adaptations made towards the middle of the 18th century, counting on some previous facilities, and paid for by the cardinal don Luis Fernández de Córdova, Count of Teba and archbishop of Toledo between 1755 and 1771.

Description and history

The convent church is responsible for building in 1646, the master of works Diego Benavides, according to the traces and conditions of the architect Friar Lorenzo de San Nicolás. Ten years later, in 1656, and with a noticeable delay of the works, it opts for the simplification of the original project, acting now like trainee Benavides and being in charge of realizing the works the Toledan master Juan de Herrera. Were dispensed with the side chapels, the dome and the entrance porch to the church, which Friar Lorenzo de San Nicolás had designed.

The temple consists of a rectangular nave and divided in four sections, and presbytery that, with its greater base towards the body of the church, marks in plant a trapeze. It has a high choir at the feet, which extends laterally in two galleries. The presbytery has, on the side of the epistle, a small quadrangular sacristy, while, on the side of the gospel, there is the chorus under the nuns. The jaharrado of all the walls and vaults lends visual amplitude and illumination to an interior that lacks both. The articulation of the elevations is realized by Tuscan pilasters, on which runs the corresponding entablement, whose frieze presents triglyphs and metopas with decoration of rosettes. The nave has a half-barrel vault, fused with lunettes, all covered with decorative plasterwork, which, from a few shields, draw a mixtiline network with a great freedom of design. The main chapel is covered, in the sphere room of its vault, with a great venera of stucco, splendid colofon of all the work of plasterwork of the temple.

The passage of the nave to the main chapel is carried out without a solution of continuity, which enhances the plastic value of the commented venera and the canvas of Francisco Rizi, who acts as the main reredos.

Externally it is a fairly high construction, with several adjoining buildings, outside the convent. The walls are of exposed brick and rafters of masonry, all arranged on a pedestal of stone blocks. It presents a portal in stone, laminated, of extreme simplicity.

Notes and refeences

• This contains information taken from the homonymous article in the Spanish Wikipedia.
• This article is a derivative of the provision relating to the process of declaration or initiation of a Property of Cultural Interest published in Official State Gazette No. 272 on November 11, 1996 (text), which is free of known restrictions under the law Of author in accordance with the provisions of article 13 of the Spanish Intellectual Property Law.

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