The monastery of
San Juan de los Reyes in Toledo with the ornamental carvings in the cloister is one of the strongest architectural impressions in my life. I visited Toledo 3 times and every time I was overwhelmed with the childlike unbridled joy emanating from the plants and creatures of the limestone paradise.
Interior of the church has opulent intricate marble friezes which leave one in awe, though producing somber and gloomy impression. One has to recall, that the monastery was intended to be the burial place for the Catholic Monarchs.
The mood changes completely once you step into the lower cloister. I was happy to find out that these were the Flemish artists who brought this charge of happiness to the stern reign of los Reyes Catolicos.
The upper cloister has marble arches with “Tanto monta, monta tanto, Isabel como Fernando”, "They amount to the same", motto of a prenuptial agreement made by the Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon. During their joint reign they did in fact support each other effectively in accordance with their motto of equality.
In what follows I collected some information about the monastery and its architect from the web.
The monastery of
San Juan de los Reyes was built by the Catholic King and Queen (the Catholic Monarchs), Isabel (Elizabeth) and Fernando (Ferdinand), to commemorate their victory at the Battle of Toro (1476) over the army of Alfonso of Portugal, who defended the claims of Juana (Jane) la Beltraneja to the throne of Castilla against Isabel la Catolica, daughter of King John II (Juan) of Castilla, sister of Enrique IV (Henry), who disputed that Juana was a legitimate daughter.
See “War of the Castilian Succession” in wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Castilian_Succession The church is dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist, patron saint of King Juan II. Common opinion says that the reason for building the monastery was so that it could be used by the Catholic Monarchs as a pantheon (royal burial place), an idea that changed after the conquest of Granada in the year 1492. They were actually buried in the Chapel Royal of Granada Cathedral.
Notable features of the sumptuous interior (by Juan Guas) are the friezes of the arms of the Catholic Monarchs supported by eagles in the transepts, the vaulting of the choir gallery and the retablo by Felipe Vigarny and Francisco de Comontes. The cloister (1504), to the southeast, is one of the finest achievements of Late Gothic architecture in Spain.
Juan Guas Spanish architect Guas also spelled
Was born , Lyon c. 1430, died c. 1496, Toledo, Spain, active 1453 –d. 1496
architect, the central figure of the group of Spanish architects who developed the Isabelline style, a combination of medieval structure, Mudéjar (Spanish Muslim) ornament, and Italian spatial design. Considered the finest architect of late 15th-century Spain, he originated designs for churches and residences that set the pattern for generations of later Spanish architects.
Guas was the son of the mason Pedro Guas, who arrived in Toledo from Brittany c. 1440 with the group of masons led by Hanequin de Bruselas, in whose workshop Juan Guas probably trained. In 1453 he was named as an assistant in the building of the Puerta de los Leones in Toledo Cathedral. In 1458 he was listed as a master mason in the Toledo Cathedral accounts, and in the following year he married Marina ?lvarez
From 1459 to 1469 he assisted Annequin de Egas on the Puerta de los Leones of Toledo Cathedral, and in 1494 he was appointed official architect of the cathedral. His major works were San Juan de los Reyes in Toledo, notable example of the Isabelline style (begun around 1478), the Infantado Palace in Guadalajara for the powerful Mendoza family (1480–83), and the chapel of San Gregorio in Valladolid (1488). He served as Master of Works of the Cathedral of Segovia between 1473 and 1491 and worked on churches and monasteries in Valladolid, Ávila, Toledo, Guadalupe, and elsewhere.
His style can best be seen at the castle of El Real de Manzanares, near Madrid (1475–9), with vigorously modeled muqarnas cornice, and at the Palace of El Infantado, Guadalajara (1480–3), where the façade is enriched with projecting diamond-shaped stones arranged in a rhomboid grid all over the wall: above is an arcaded gallery with corbelled balconies.