Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Record ID
monument;ISL;es;Mon01;19;ar
Library Location
Torrijos (Toledo), Spain
Notes
In the 14th century, Pierre I built a Gothic-Mudéjar palace in order to rest near his mistress, María de Padilla. John II resided in the palace, and granted Torrijos the right to hold a free, tax-free market every Wednesday (1423). The palace was a ruin in the nineteenth century, so it was restored by the state and allocated to justice. The old palace was a model for the Altamira Palace, built over the old market square by Don Gutierre de Cárdenas and his wife, Doña Teresa Enrique, after purchasing it on July 11, 1482 from the city of Torrijos, which they then made, their place of residence, and, soon after, the capital of their rich state, replacing Maceda, which they acquired in 1471, despite the strategic location of this last city. And her castle. The new palace that has disappeared today would be known as the Palace of Don Gutierre, the Palace of the Dukes of Makeda, the Palace of the Marquis of Elche and the Palace of the Counts of Altamira. Upon Don Guitier's death (January 31, 1503), Donna Teresa completed the monumental monument created by the couple. Because of the undulating Gothic-style nacelle, the designs were traced back to Juan Joas (d. 1496), following the models of the brothers Egas and Joas. The total area exceeds 8,000 square metres, of which about 4,000 square meters were allocated to a maqbala orchard, and the rest was reserved for the built-up space. The palace consisted of spacious halls and four rooms surmounted by vaults covered with latticed structures dating back to the end of the fifteenth century, beautiful in color and delicately decorated, and supported by corner triangles with muqarnas. In the four corners of the arcades, four halls are separated greatly from the outside, evoking the ancient massive towers of medieval palaces-castles. The nave belongs to the characteristics of the Toledan Gothic style, with a doorway with a lintel, and side columns extended with a graduated alvez, embracing a three-lobed, curly-shaped arch, ending with a rosette. The stairs represent models of the fifteenth century, imported from Flanders by Hanokan of Brussels. In the upper and lower parts, it presents architectural structures consisting of solid protrusions and huge decorative ribs that contain, in their lower part, drawings of tears. Thanks to old photographs, we are able to imagine what the two-storey nave and the perfectly round arches were already in the new, revived style, because they belong to the expansions of Donna Teresa. Thanks to the topographical accounts of Philip II (1576), we know the organization of the space built during the period of Don Gutierre, and enlarged by his wife. Over the centuries, the palace has been subjected to successive damage, and its magnificent costumes have moved to different places: the “Alamein” square of Santa Cruz de Retmar (the nacelle), Oropeza, Toledo, Madrid (the ceiling of the northwest corner hall, currently in the National Archaeological Museum), Villandry (the ceiling of the “Martina” hall), London (a hall in the Victoria and Albert Museum), and San Francisco (the ceiling of Hall 2 of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor).
Sample Text
Ángela Franco “Palace of the Dukes of Makeda” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;es;Mon01;19;ar
