The Monastery of San Jerónimo

is one of the many religious buildings created in Granada immediately after the expulsion of the Moors. It was built in 1496 for the monks of the Order of Saint Jerome, and is a fine example of the "estilo isabelino", the late Gothic style favoured by the Catholic Queen Isabel.  Here lie the bones of the illustrious military commander, Don Fernando González de Córdoba, popularly known as the Gran Capitán, who assisted in the reconquest of Granada.

 

 

King Ferdinand ordered the stones needed to build for the monastery to be brought from the Moorish fortress which stood behind the Elvira Gate, and which, until the demolition, stood guard at the entrance to the medina.

 

 

 

 

The magnificent cloister is planted with orange trees, like the famous "Patio de los Naranjos" in the Cathedral of Cordoba, which was once the courtyard of abolutions of the Great Mosque or "Mezquita".

 

 

 The monks who lived here are buried in the cloister beneath simple tombstones. This one says "Friar Fernando of Saint Jerome, year (of death) 1639"

 

 

Inside, however, the grandiose decoration of the nave is in the most sumptuous Spanish baroque style.  A stunning contrast to the sober exterior!

 

 

 

When Napoleon's troops occupied Granada, they desecrated many of the city's religious monuments, to display their hatred of both clericalism and the Spanish aristocracy which had fought for so many centuries against France.  During their few years of government, however, the French also modernized the city with paved roads, esplanades and bridges. 

When it came to replacing an old wooden bridge crossing the Genil River with a stronger, stone one - to enable the occupying troops and artillery to move about at will - the commander, General Sebastiani, ordered the upper sections of the belltower of San Jerónimo to be demolished and the stones used for the new bridge.

 

The French turned the monastery into such a wreck that it was left as it was for a century and a half, without its tower,  until it was finally rebuilt to the original design, in our times.  It is easy to see how the lower part of the tower is older than the upper one from the contrast between the dark, grey stones below and the pale yellow ones which rise above the level of the roof.

 

 

El Puente Verde

The single-span stone bridge which the French built took the name of its wooden predecessor, Puente Verde, so called because it had been painted green.  The story of how the stones of the the Moorish fort were used to build the Christian monastery, and then the stones of the monastery's belltower were used to build the Napoleonic bridge is typical of the way, in those times, each new conqueror did with the monuments he found as he royally pleased.

 

In the same quarter of the city there are two other fine baroque churches...

 

Church of San Juan de Dios

 

The Iglesia de San Juan de Dios, Granada's own saint, stands on the street of the same name, and next door to the hospital of the Order of Saint John of God.

Church of Santos Justo y Pastor

 

The Iglesia de los Santos Justo y Pastor overlooks the Plaza de la Universidad, the original site of Granada's university...

 

...and just across from this building which was originally built by the Jesuits for the evangelisation of Granada's Moors...

...but which later became Granada's Law School.  It was here that the poet Federico García Lorca once attended courses, although he never became a lawyer.  But he did draw a charming cartoon of the gate's wreathed columns.

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