The Catholic Monarchs had the monastery of San Juan de los Reyes in Toledo, originally planned as their mausoleum, but in the end they chose Granada, the city that crowned their reign. By a royal decree of 13 September 1504, weeks before Isabella’s death, they founded this chapel, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist, to hold their bodies.

1Late Gothic

Work began in 1505 under Enrique Egas and was finished in 1517. Isabella had died in Medina del Campo in November 1504 and Ferdinand in 1516; both were first buried in the convent of San Francisco in the Alhambra and moved here once the chapel was ready.

Inside, behind a monumental iron screen by Maestro Bartolomé, lie two marble tombs: that of Isabella and Ferdinand, a masterpiece by the Italian Domenico Fancelli, and that of their daughter Joanna and her husband Philip the Handsome, by Bartolomé Ordóñez. They are in fact cenotaphs: the bodies lie below, in a simple crypt, in lead coffins marked with their initials. Prince Miguel de la Paz, the monarchs’ grandson who died as a child, also rests there.

2A queen’s collection

The old sacristy holds the crown and sceptre attributed to the monarchs and part of Isabella’s painting collection, with works by Rogier van der Weyden, Dirk Bouts and Hans Memling, as well as an Agony in the Garden by Botticelli.

Across the street, the Madraza founded by Yusuf I in 1349 was the first public madrasa in al-Andalus: two worlds a few metres apart.

3What to look for

  • The Lonja of 1518, with its twisted columns.
  • The Gothic cresting along the top of the chapel walls.
  • The facade of the Madraza, on the other side of the street.
Marble tombs of the Catholic Monarchs and of Joanna and Philip in the Royal Chapel, behind a wrought-iron screen
The marble tombs by Fancelli and Ordóñez, inside the Royal Chapel.

Documented

Founded by royal decree on 13 September 1504 and built between 1505 and 1517, it holds the remains of Isabella I, Ferdinand II, Joanna I, Philip I and Prince Miguel.

Sources and credits

Capilla Real de Granada, official website (capillarealgranada.com); Antonio Gallego y Burín, Guía artística e histórica de la ciudad de Granada (Comares); Rafael López Guzmán and María Elena Díez Jorge (eds.), La Madraza: pasado, presente y futuro (Universidad de Granada, 2007).

Photos:

  • The Lonja of the Royal Chapel on calle Oficios, with an arcaded gallery and twisted columns: José Luiz, CC BY-SA 3.0.
  • Marble tombs of the Catholic Monarchs and of Joanna and Philip in the Royal Chapel, behind a wrought-iron screen: José Luis Filpo Cabana, CC BY 4.0.

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