Monasterio de la Cartuja
This 16th-century monastery, off the Albaicín on the outskirts of Granada, is sometimes called the “Christian answer to the Alhambra” because of its ornate stucco and marble and the baroque Churrigueresque fantasy in the sacristy. You can’t help but thinking its architects and craftsmen must have taken the Nasrid palaces as a challenge. It starts austerely with a peaceful cloister planted with orange trees. Portraits of martyred monks and a tromp l’oeil wooden cross provide the only decoration in the refectory. But when you step into the church it bursts into full-blown Baroque fantasy. The ornamentation here is perhaps the pinnacle of Spain’s Churrigueresque style. Plasterwork froths like ocean waves crashing onto a rock, and the cupola of the Sacristía is a masterpiece of Baroque fresco painting by Tomás Ferrer. In the midst of it all is a small, baleful statue of St Bruno, founder of the silent Carthusian order, by José de Mora.
This 16th-century monastery, off the Albaicín on the outskirts of Granada, is sometimes called the “Christian answer to the Alhambra” because of its ornate stucco and marble and the baroque Churrigueresque fantasy in the sacristy. You can’t help but thinking its architects and craftsmen must have taken the Nasrid palaces as a challenge. It starts austerely with a peaceful cloister planted with orange trees. Portraits of martyred monks and a tromp l’oeil wooden cross provide the only decoration in the refectory. But when you step into the church it bursts into full-blown Baroque fantasy. The ornamentation here is perhaps the pinnacle of Spain’s Churrigueresque style. Plasterwork froths like ocean waves crashing onto a rock, and the cupola of the Sacristía is a masterpiece of Baroque fresco painting by Tomás Ferrer. In the midst of it all is a small, baleful statue of St Bruno, founder of the silent Carthusian order, by José de Mora.
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