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Cardinal Salazar Square
The whiteness of the streets of the Jewish Quarter contrast with the baroque Cardinal Salazar Square. A lot of tourists and students take a breathe in this wonderful square, flanked by the ancient Cardinal Salazar Hospital today Philosophy and Letters Faculty and by the convent church Saint Peter of Alcantara.
The Convent of Saint Peter of Alcantara was built thank to the generosity of Don Francisco Antonio Bañuelos, previously master of the factory of the Cathedral, and who gave the plots to build the church. On sixth July 1682 the new chapel was inaugurated. Later they realized that the plot was too smal and aplied to the Town Hall new more room to build the new church. The plans were performed by Luis de Rojas, master of the works of the city, being carried out by Baltasar de los Reyes. In 1696 the convent was inaugurated by the Cardinal Don Pedro de Salazar.
The church represents the tyical cordovan "baroque with boards". This style was deceloed in our city during the first part on the XVIII Century and it is performed with geometrical elements, above all externally. The main façade has  an organization with two parts ended byn a big triangular pediment, and it is vertically structured in three streets. In the central one there is a roman arch and on it thre is the image of Saint Peter of Alcantara into a niche and ended with a curved pediment. The rest are all horizontal and vertical "boards".
Inside the church the plan is a latin cross, whose central nave is divided into four parts, and it is covered by a barrel vault with lunettes. The transet is covered by a dome decorated with paintings of the XVIII Century that represents vegetable motives, angels bringing palms and groins. The apse is rectangular, and it has an altarpiece made in marble red and black and gypsum, made by Francisco Hurtado Izquierdo. Finally the epistle side has a little chapel where the image of Our Madam of Presentation is in it, by Miguel Ángel González Jurado, owner of the young Brotherhood of the University.
One of the most important example of architecture of the XVIII Century is the Cardenal Salazar Hospital. A hospital that curiously was destinied to children of the choir of the Cathedral. With this premise the Cardinal bought more plots to Don Antonio del Corral in 1704, situated in front of the Saint Peter of Alcantara Church.
The architect chosen was Hurtado Izquierdo who was previously the Mayor Master of the Cathedral. The works went on very quickly when suddenly the pest hit tha city in 1704, so this building was adapted to the situation. Then the Cardinal decided to turn the building into a hospital. For this reason this hospital has an original structure, different from the other hospitals.
In 1706 the Cardinal Salazar died and the works were assigned to his nephew, Dean of the Cathedral, Don Pedro de Salazar y Góngora, who later was named bishop of Córdoba in 1738. The hospital was inaugurated the 11th of november in 1724.
The main façade was divided into two parts. The lower part has shouldered windows crowned by triangular pedimants and flanked by double pillars put on plinth. The upper part has a small cornice and the structure is the same to the first one, the only difference is the pediment which is curved. A split on cornice ended the complex where big masks decerate the same.
The main façade is spotted from the rest of the façade. It is carried out in marble; it is divided into two parts very differentiated. In the lwer part there are two doric columns that flanked a shoultered arch, and are put under an entablature made with trygliphs and plain metopes. The second part is composed by a balcony, on it the is a split up padiment and two pilars ended with balls. Finally you can admire the shield of the Cardinal Salazar.
Inside the buiding there are two courts and a staircase. The staircase is in marble. Between the 1st and 2nd floor there is the"Portrait of the Cardinal Salazar" by Ignacio de Cobos Guzmán.
The main court has a similar structure to the façade, with shoultered arches flanked by douple pillars and the alternance of the pediments, triangular and curved. On the other hand the other court is smaller and it has a porch in the lower part. The columns are doric and the roman arches, where as the second floor has shoultered arches. |
