The Oratory of Caballero de Gracia is a neoclassical church located in Madrid (Spain), with entry through the streets Gran Vía No. 17 and Caballero de Gracia No. 5. Belongs to the Royal, Ancient and Venerable Congregation of the Indignos Slaves of the Blessed Sacrament (later Eucharistic Association of the Gentleman of Grace, ruled by Opus Dei), founded by the Moorish real estate speculator and libertine and then priest Jacobo de Grattis, better known as the Knight of Grace.
History of the building
The original oratory was built in 1654, but its dilapidated condition in the mid-eighteenth century necessitated its rehabilitation. The architect Juan de Villanueva presented two floors in the year 1782; one, expanding the existing as requested, "recomposing the whole nave with the formation of pilasters and chapels, in order to unite it with the character of the new main chapel or transept that I propose to make"; another, of a basilical scheme, proposed a new temple "which would do a better work in the work, with more variety and novelty because of the absence of any other idea of ??this idea in this Court". This second proposal was chosen, with Villanueva completing the project with internal elevations in June of the same year.
Villanueva, who received this assignment from King Carlos III at the culminating moment of his career, had trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in San Fernando, where his brother taught and won the first prizes of outstanding student. He managed to go to Rome after being a beneficiary of the first "Pensions of Rome" and that stay was decisive in his preparation, training and architectural ideology.
Rome was in the eighteenth century a meeting place for artists and there they discussed the new aesthetic ideas and prepared the drawings that would constitute the graphic material of the most important books of architecture. There, characters such as Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Johann Joachim Winckelmann or Anton Raphael Mengs, foreshadowed a new artistic movement; a return to antiquity understood as a repeatable model.
Juan de Villanueva arrived in Rome in 1759, where the theoretical scheme of Neoclassicism was consolidated. On his return to Spain, Villanueva was in the background as official architect of the monarchy since it was Francesco Sabatini who monopolized royal commissions. Upon his death, he became the Senior Architect of the Royal Works and it is at this moment that he receives the commission. Until then, the architect had carried out civil works linked to royalty, such as the Casitas del Príncipe in El Escorial and El Pardo, as well as magnificent works such as the Astronomical Observatory and the current Prado Museum, both in Madrid.
The work was a milestone in his career because it was the first major religious commission and the fact of encountering many difficulties in its projection and execution, due in part to disagreements with the Congregation of the Gentleman of Grace and economic conditioning and space.
Between November 1782 and February 1795, the interior work of the oratory was carried out. The long period that it took to build is explained by the lack of funds, and King Carlos III had to provide assistance with part of the revenues of the new National Royal Lottery. In 1794 the debts and the impossibility of finishing the building were so urgent that a benefactor was committed to the final expenses of work if it was finished for the Eighth.
At that time, Villanueva had ordered the overturning of a cornice, understanding the Congregation that it delayed the work and could prevent the reception of the donation. There is an exchange of letters between Villanueva and the Congregation; the architect considered that his orders should prevail over the hurry of time, and the Association saw the important donation in danger if the work in the Eighth did not finish. The final result was the dismissal of Villanueva and the new commission to the architect Juan Pedro Arnal, who finished the work in 1795.
The facade of Caballero de Gracia Street, designed in 1789, was not built until 1830, with alterations and under the direction of Custodio Teodoro Moreno. The work was forced because the lack of the facade the rain greatly damaged the building.
Between 1911 and 1916 the alignment of the building with the new Gran Vía forced the house of the chaplains and other dependencies to be destroyed, and the new north façade of the oratory, the work of the architect Carlos de Luque López, was built.
Later the building was restored by Fernando Chueca Goitia, and in 2003 a rehabilitation of lights, paintings and stained glass windows of the presbytery was completed.
Architecture
In a plan of the time, Villanueva's project to create a basilica-type church appears, with the beginning of a cut-out Latin cross, a presbyterial apse and a dome; this last one was an express request of the congregation that considered that a cupola gave honor to the oratory to similarity of the best churches of the Court. In addition to the church proper, behind the apse were included a series of dependencies, such as the meeting room, the sacristy and the chaplain's house that disappeared when the Gran Vía opened at the beginning of the 20th century.
The outline of the building is very simple: choir, basilica nave, false aisles delimited by columns (actually they are mere corridors), transept with cupola, apse and annexed dependencies: sacristy, chaplain rooms and meeting room. The oratory appears as a large Corinthian hall in which only the high choir, the transept and the presbytery allow it to be associated with a religious destiny. In a way, he remembers what would have been the definitive project of the Meeting Room of the Prado Museum, not built.
Villanueva used stonework combined with brick as in most of its constructions. In the dome he used lead, "700 arrobas", which were donated by Carlos III.
Faced with the impossibility of assuming the direction of the work for the multiple trips he had to make to supervise the royal works, Juan de Villanueva asked the Congregation to entrust the same to Professor Antonio Abajo, a man of total confidence.
The building was located on the outskirts of the city at that time, being limited by the east and west sides by residential buildings, and by the north side with San Miguel street, now disappeared. The place, although it is currently very central, is not relevant, because of the narrow streets in which it is located. The building, although very beautiful, appears as boxed among other constructions, in addition to not offering the visibility from the outside as to give relevance by itself to the area.
The basilica was built, then, in a narrow and elongated space. This conditioned the work from the beginning, but the architect knew how to solve this problem creating a diaphanous and monumental space despite its small dimensions.
The site where it was built is trapezoidal, with a dimension of 72 and 76 feet the largest sides and 55 and 56 feet the smallest.
On the floor of the building we can see that the single nave is a rectangle and it is worth highlighting the expertise of Villanueva who was able to create the effect of a transept in this space. Also, by adding the two background columns (after the cruise), it achieved a depth effect, prolonging and expanding the space.
The obliquity of the south façade with respect to the longitudinal axis of the building is striking, in order to align itself with the adjoining facades and be arranged orthogonally to the direction of Caballero de Gracia street. However, the viewer does not perceive this deviation from the axis due to the narthex that precedes the body of the church.
Facades
The original plans of Villanueva for the south façade (the one that faces the current Calle del Caballero de Gracia) were slightly altered by the architect Custodio Moreno between 1826 and 1832. Stripped of all adornment (except for a relief in stone resembling the Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper), two elegant Ionic columns flank the entrance, located in a slightly recessed central cloth, recalling this scheme the classical façades of type in antis. On the sides, simple niches and decorations of plaque, and in the auction a classic pediment broken to leave hollow to a window of reduced arch.
The northern façade falls to the Gran Vía and has been conditioned by the construction of this great avenue. Thus, the apse was cut and modified slightly; This adaptation was carried out by Carlos de Luque between 1911 and 1916. Later it was Javier Feduchi Benlliure who between 1989 and 1991 rebuilt the façade, creating a triumphal arch over the apse that allows to see the outside of the dome.
At the opening of the Gran Vía, in addition, the sacristy, the meeting room and the priests' houses that overlooked San Miguel Street disappeared (also disappeared).
Inside
The interior presents a single nave, since it is not possible to speak of side aisles due to the narrow corridor that is between the row of columns and the lateral paraments; We could say that it is like a colonnade slightly separated from the wall. The amplitude effect imitating a church with three naves allows to visually widen the space and shows the expertise of Villanueva as interior architect.
The twelve free columns that delimit the "central" nave are monolithic, of granite, with capitals of Corinthian order. To them are joined the two semiempotradas in the apse, which hold an orange half decorated with casetones, matching those that decorate the barrel vault of the nave.
The twelve free columns that delimit the "central" nave are monolithic, of granite, with capitals of Corinthian order. To them are joined the two semiempotradas in the apse, which hold an orange half decorated with casetones, matching those that decorate the barrel vault of the nave.
On the small elliptical transept (given the oblong character of the basilica and therefore very short side arms), stands the dome on pendentives; It has an ovoid shape with four skylights or circular windows. Above it the lantern ends, allowing a contribution of overhead light to the transept and the altar.
Preceding the main nave there is a small narthex to which the main facade gives; above it is a small choir.
The mastery of Juan de Villanueva as architect is evident in the refined lighting and visual effects that can be seen inside the temple.
In the first place, a visual effect of light gradation in the longitudinal direction is observed, producing a contrast between the penumbra of the feet of the nave and the luminescence of the opposite side. The rhythmic succession of the columns, on the other hand, makes the limited space extend without limits. The oval shape of the dome that is interposed between the barrel vault of the major axis and the apse exedra of the presbytery causes a visual continuity (given the small length of the major axis) that is not abruptly interrupted by the transept; in this way the visual impact of the basilica nave is preserved. Another game of magisterial perspectives takes place in the area of ??the false transept, where with a small setback of the side walls the illusory effect of a true transept is produced. The apparent loss of the lateral limits of the ship and the cruiser is the effect that is produced in the spectator. This spatial effect is the heritage of the Baroque, appearing for example in the Scala Regia by Gian Lorenzo Bernini for the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican City.
Furniture heritage
Interior of the dome.
The interior decoration of the building is sober, as befits the canons of Neoclassicism. There is no greater altarpiece, and in its place there is a stained-glass window of the Parisian House Maumejean, with the theme of the Last Supper, a very appropriate reason given that the Congregation has a Eucharistic character. Topping this space, a glow with the trinitarian triangle and worshiping angels.
Along the walls of the nave are large paintings, from the time of construction of the building, constituting an interesting neoclassical painting gallery. Its authors are, among others, José Beratón, José Camarón Boronat and Zacarías González Velázquez, who also painted the frescoes of the dome.
In the narthex, behind a glazed grille, after the last restoration, the excellent carving of the Virgen del Socorro, by Francisco Elías, dated 1825, has been arranged. On the right hand side, as you enter, you find the carving of the Christ of the Agonía, one of the masterpieces of the Spanish Baroque imagery, being one of the few works that are preserved by Juan Sánchez Barba.
To the right of the nave, near the transept, is the tomb of Jacobo de Grattis, the Knight of Grace, "twin in the dissolute Don Juan Tenorio ..., terror of parents and husbands", 7 repentant protagonist of popular Madrid legends and character of zarzuelas such as La Gran Vía.
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