The history of the Ferdinand church of Saint Paul, Cordoba (Spain)

• Español
• Inglés
• Francés
• Alemán
• Japonés

• Home
• Web Map
• Contact us
• Foros
• Recommend us

• Return
• History
• The building
• Altars
• Chapels
• Photo gallery I
• Photo gallery II
• Tourism

        The Convent of Saint Paul the Royal was funded by Ferdinand III the Saint, in the Section of Saint Andrews, a very unpopulated at the time of The Reconquest, and the convent served as the nucleus repopulating next to the church that gave its name to the section. It is situated next to the wall that joins the Via Augusta and the city walls that linked the sections to the Ajerquia and the city. The convent was in a privileged area of the city.
        The extension of the complex was quite extensive, now reduced to the church, which in the early twentieth century was in a state of ruin, and thanks to the work of P. Pueyo has reached us. A copy of the founding of Saint Paul, granted in the year 1241, has revealed many details of the founding era, as the convent was received with many gifts, handouts, privileges, and especially dominicans parents who occupied from the start, they had the real protection for several centuries. The monks had a large number of possessions: the homes that sold or rented out for shops, a school or a beaterio.
        The dedication of the temple is due to the day of taking the city by the christian armies took place on the feast of Saint Paul and Saint Peter, it is remarkable the symbolic nature of the church.
        As in other cases in our city, the building has suffered numerous reforms and changes over the years. To find the first one have to go back to the sixteenth century, when teachers of the stature of Hernán Ruiz III and Juan de Ochoa worked in the convent, stands up the work of the second, who was the facade of the foot of the church or the cloister of the convent, which only some arcades are kept, they are located in the courtyard of the existing access of the Provincial Delegation of Culture of the Junta de Andalucía.
        During the seventeenth century the building does not undergo significant changes, although Alonso Gómez Montoro sought a place of burial, and in 1663 the medieval chapels, Souls and Saint Joseph, were united turning into the Chapel of The Anguishes.
        If the seventeenth century marked a period of calm in the building works in the eighteenth century meant the opposite. Then the entrance of Compas was made in 1706 by Bartolomé de Rojas and Andrés Del Pino Ascanio. In this period it is also built the Little Room of the Chapel of Rosary, with the most impressive marbles of Alonso Gómez de Sandoval. The façade of Saint Paul is made with a carved image of the Virgin of the Rosary, made by Juan Navarro León.
        In the XIX Century and in the XX Century a big restoration was run by Adolfo Castiñeyra and Mateo Inurria: the Chapel of the Holy Christ of Expiration was renewed. Cleaning the walls they found out three polilobated archs as well as lattices or alfiz. This led to redecorate the chapel to neomudejar taste, imitating the plasterwork of the Royal Chapel of the Mosque-Cathedral.

Text: J.A.S.C.

Traslated by Sara Moretti