Convent of Santo Domingo El Antiguo

Phone: 925 222 930

Website: www.santodomingoelanti...

Type of monument

Religious Architecture

Period

16th century.

Art style

Mannerist

Special trips

At the end of the museum the beautiful 14th century Gothic tomb of Juan Alfonso de Ajofrín may be seen. The convent also houses numerous documents in its archive cabinet and the original contracts signed by El Greco.

How to get there

Road transport

The current temple of the Cistercian Convent of Santo Domingo de Silos was built in 1577, in the Mannerist Renaissance style, with the initial stage by Nicolás de Vergara, modified by Juan de Herrera.

The church has a Latin cross floor plan and consists of a single nave, with a chapel located on the epistle side, that communicates through a grille with the beautiful Chapter House. Right at the foot of the grille that separates the actual choir from the rest of the church, a glass trapdoor allows us to see the crypt where it is likely that the remains of El Greco are buried. At the end of the choir, on the wall that separates it from the nuns’ choir, is the renaissance communion rail in the form of an altarpiece.

A small window allowed the cloistered nuns to take communion without being seen in the church. The project of the altars and all its paintings were the reason why the canon don Diego del Castillo brought the Cretan painter to Spain. Only three originals are preserved, the two Saint Johns on the High Altar and the Resurrection before Saint Ildefonso, at the side.

The old choir and antechoir form a museum with various altarpieces. Wooden and stone sculptures, tombstones moved there as the result of the alterations, gold and silverwork and liturgical objects. Among the painters worth mentioning are Eugenio Cajés, Correa de Vivar and Sánchez Cotán.

Timetables

Monday to Saturday: 11am to 1.30pm and 4pm to 7pm.
Sundays: 4pm to 7pm.

Fees

ENTRY: €1.50
GROUP ENTRY: €1