The Second Monastery of the Visitation of Santa María, or Salesas Nuevas, is a monastery of the Spanish city of Madrid. It is located in the neighborhood of Universidad, belonging to the Centro district. It is located at number 72 of San Bernardo street in Madrid, street where it has a main entrance and a secondary access.1 It is bordered on the north by Divino Pastor street, on the south by Daoíz street, on the west with the aforementioned street of San Bernardo and to the east with the street of Monteleón.
History
In 1792, María Luisa Centurión y Velasco, Marquise de Villena and Estepa, 2 requested permission to build at their expense a building for the convent of nuns of the Visitation of Our Lady and school of San Francisco de Sales. of the second Salesian community established in Madrid, the first being the Monastery of the Visitation or Salesas Reales promoted in 1748, by Bárbara de Braganza, wife of Fernando VI.
The new foundation was dedicated to the education of girls from distinguished families in the capital, the same purpose as the first community.1 Its approval was not easy because in 1792, the archbishop of Toledo had prohibited the constitution of new conventual foundations in Madrid, for which the Marchioness had to justify her request in a reasoned manner.1 Finally, based on the utility that would be reported to the city, the General Syndic approved the constitution of salesas.
The place chosen for the new foundation was the wide street of San Bernardo, specifically a plot occupied by some houses owned by Ángel de Carvajal Zúñiga and Lancaster, Duke of Abrantes and Linares.1 In 1792, the Marquise de Villena wanted to buy said houses to the widow of the duke, properties that had been repaired that same year.1 Manuel Bradi was the appraiser of the buildings, valued at 1,015,804 reales and 15 maravedíes, which were finally sold for 820,760 reales and 15 maravedíes, leaving the The remaining amount in possession of the Marchioness to pay the charges that existed on said properties.
In this way, the congregation did not settle in a new building but occupied, on November 18, 1793, the houses on the street of San Bernardo that had been recently repaired.1 However, they were executed some actions, among which stood out the construction of a church according to the needs of the community of closure.1 Said project was entrusted to the same Manuel Bradi, author of the appraisal of the property.1 Bradi, prolific master builder, developed most of his work in the capital, from 1777 to 1824; his modest title, granted by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in 1780, did not prevent him from executing high-quality works, becoming an interesting designer and urban planner, homogenizer of Madrid's urban fabric at the end of the eighteenth century.1 As pointed out by Navascués, his production has certain reminiscences of the architects of the moment, especially Ventura Rodríguez, with whom he would probably have some contact, including the palace of the Duke of Medinaceli in Atocha Street, the urbanization of the square that precedes the neoclassical church of Santiago, as well as examples of religious architecture such as the façade of the late church of San Miguel or the rebuilding of numerous buildings intended for religious communities settled in the Court (Recogidas, Arrepentidas or Cofradías).
Facade of the convent around 1847 in the Geographic-statistical-historical Dictionary of Spain and its overseas possessions of Madoz
Regarding the project of the Salesas Nuevas, only the design of the facade towards the street of San Bernardo, presented by Don Antonio Bradi, on June 12, 1794 and later approved by Juan de Villanueva, is included.1 It is about the design made for the construction of the church, as it is stated in the request for license of others, in which it is stated that "at the end of the facade of the aforementioned broad street is intended for the Church, and to this end requests to vary its appearance in that part, "requesting permission to" proceed to the construction of said part of the façade. "Therefore, Bradi would intervene exclusively in the temple.The design finally adopted was varied with respect to the original drawing: the configuration of the In the same way, the ensemble lost the initial unitary character, since the unevenness of the horizontal church slabs is evident and conventual dependencies, which generates two differentiated constructions.
The convent was abolished in 1836 and the community was relocated to the first house of the Salesian order in Madrid.1 In 1838, the building was transformed into the headquarters of the Central University, moved from Alcalá de Henares, and the church became the Auditorium. of the institution.1 After the construction of an ex profeso building for the University in the 1840s, in the place where the Novitiate of Jesuit Fathers was located and in the same street of San Bernardo, the congregation will return to its original location towards 1850.1
Fountain of San Bernardo, with the convent of the Salesas Nuevas on the left and the church of Nuestra Señora de Montserrat on the right (mid-19th century)
During the Civil War the building was converted into Czech, at which time it suffered major damage.1 The church was restored at the beginning of the seventies, at which time it was renovated.1 In 1993 it was restored again.1 The garden has been reduced in size to make way for new buildings.1 It is a contained and functional property in which the church stands out, which has the most interesting elements.1 It is integrated by the church, five courtyards of different sizes, galleries around them and garden with an "L" shape in the northeast boundary of the complex.1 In recent dates to 2011 in the southeast area of ??the site were added two more patios with their corresponding bays, a space that originally was part of the garden and lacks historical artistic values.
Description
The conventual dependencies are located in the southwest area of ??the site and, at least in its original nucleus, are certainly prior to the last quarter of the eighteenth century.1 It presents simple constructive features, with a stony socle that saves the height difference of the ground on which three heights are arranged, marked with latticed openings distributed regularly; in the facade to San Bernardo they are of rectangular configuration in the low and main floor, whereas the superior ones acquire square form; those on the façade at Daoíz are all quadrangular.1 It has a façade with a granite base and no interruption other than the cornice, flown over corbels, and the access door to number 72, which has a simple lining with a concave molding. 1 A wall of neomudéjar inspiration, executed in brick and articulated by pilasters, closes the garden of the monastery on its northern and eastern facades; its composition, ornamentation and materials place it chronologically in the second half of the 19th century.
Facade of the church.
The church, displaced to the north in the façade of San Bernardo, is the most remarkable element of the whole. Its façade presents a neoclassical composition, simple and balanced, consisting of a rectangle divided into three streets framed by four Tuscan granite pilasters, which hold a powerful entablature, set back in its central section, a resource that provides interesting dynamism.1 On it there is a large triangular pediment that crowns the facade, with smooth tympanum and topped with a stony cross.1 The side streets are vertebrated by oculi on the first level of the facade and windows blinded.1 The central street of the façade houses the access to the temple, with a lintelled configuration topped by a semicircular pediment, on which there is a relief made in stone by Julián San Martín, representing Saint Francis de Sales giving the Constitutions to Saint Juana Francisco Fremiot, a relief contemporary to the construction of the property.
The plant of the temple develops in a single ship of five sections, slightly of more width the corresponding the greater chapel, closed with flat tester; small chapels with niches are placed between buttresses in the second and third sections.1 The church is accessed through a rectangular atrium on which there is a choir for the community, communicated with the central nave through a vain lattice. the main altar is the sacristy, a square volume with two accesses.
The cover of the temple is of vault of cannon articulated by arcs fajones.1 In elevation a stone base crosses the interior space; separating the sections of the church are pilasters crowned by capitals of Ionic order, decorated with garlands, which support a developed entablature; This is topped by a denticulate molding and an outstanding composite cornice, on which the vault starts are located.1 In the section of the main chapel.
The main chapel, protected by a cast iron balustrade, is subtly elevated.1 In this space, the entablature is slightly recessed on the sides to accentuate its relevance.1 It is presided over by a greater reredos of the altarpiece-frame type, executed in marble and wood, which houses a large canvas.1 This piece requires the breaking of the cornice, on which there is a semicircular tympanum with radial decoration in cassettes with central florón, an ornamental scheme with a marked classic cut.1 On both sides from the front there are accesses to the sacristy with developed marble covers of different tonalities topped by garlands and medallion On the side of the epistle of the section of the main altar a second choir is opened, with a rectangular plan, again connected with bars. Chapel-hornacinas of little bottom are located in the second and third sections; they are sheltered by semicircular arches and protect interesting marble altarpieces, coeval with the church.1 In the section of the feet are shelves protected on large corbels, with elegant and sober parapet of marbles of different tonalities; the grandstands are protected by wooden lattices.
Regarding the movable property that the church guards, there are few original elements that are conserved, due to the different uses it has housed.1 The original painting of the main altar, representing Saint Juana Fremiot and Saint Francis de Sales, is preserved. in an attitude of prayer, the work of the Valencian Agustín Esteve y Marqués; on the Gospel side, the Good Shepherd, of Esteve himself, the rest of the canvases are copies of those existing before the Civil War, executed by Sr. Maria Amada.
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