Iglesia de San Pedro Mártir (Calatayud)

Engaving of the back facade of the church of the monastery of San Pedro Mártir, Calatayud, by Valentín Carderera. Dating: 1820 - 1880. Museo Lázaro Galdiano.

Front facade of the Iglesia de San Pedro Mártir.

Mudéjar detail of the back facade.

The Iglesia de San Pedro Mártir was a Mudéjar church located in Calatayud (Aragon), demolished in 1856. The main reason for the demolition of the church was hampering the traffic; Gaya Nuño described the event as follows:^[1]

And still today shudders this brutal mayored that deprived us of one of the most fascinating Mudéjar monuments of our Middle Ages."

History

After the Christian conquest of Calatayud in 1120, various Monastic orders came to the city and founded their respective convents, with their churches. The Dominican order founded his convent in 1255, whose church was dedicated to St. Peter Martyr of Verona, west of the city, outside the walls. Destroyed in 1362 by the Castilians in the War of the Two Peters shortly after, in 1368, begins its reconstruction, but this time intramural, although forming part of the defensive perimeter, also to the west, and near the original site.

Surely the architect or master builder, was Muza Adolmalich and the initial patronage of King Peter IV of Aragon. But at some point this patronage became of Cardinal of Aragon, Pedro Martínez de Luna, who used the church as family mausoleum. Eight years after being elected pope, Benedict XIII decided to double the length of this church, ordering to which seems to be his favorite architect, Mohammed Rami, probably responsible for the abandonment of Islamic decorative forms in favor of Gothic, most likely following indications of the Pope. Just over two years lasted this expansion -between 1414 and 1421- and left unfinished because of the two towers projected only finished one.^[2]

As usual, there were multiple added in later periods. In the 16th century regrow the cloister and the tower, and in Baroque style was built the chapel of the Virgin of the Rosary as a small church attached. The convent, besides its religious function, was teaching until the first third of the last century.

After the confiscation and its use as barracks, was demolished in 1856, on the pretext that blocked traffic on the road proceedings of Madrid. On its site were built, years later, the headquarters of the Civil Guard, the Regional Court and the city jail, all demolished and replaced by modern housing blocks.

References

1. "Monumentos desaparecidos", Great Aragonese Encyclopedia
2. "SAN PEDRO MÁRTIR, iglesia de", Calatayud.org