Catalogue

THE RELIEFS OF THE MAIN ALTAR OF SAN MARTIN

Façade of the old church
© J. Muñiz  CC-BY-NC-ND

BACKGROUND 

The Church of Saint Martin, the Bishop, which is today the Headquarters of the Fair Museum, was founded in 1512 thanks to the initiative of the married couple made up of Pedro de Ribera and María de Medina, both of whom were prominent figures in the Court of the Catholic Monarchs, as the inscription that figures at the foot of the exquisite Mudejar framework decorating the ceiling of the temple's high chapel informs us.

The rectangular-shaped church has a single nave with two aisles and a barrel vaulted ceiling with lunettes on the Gospel side giving on to a private side chapel founded at the beginning of the XVII century by Leonor de Garibay.

Brick is the predominant material used in the exterior together with ashlar blocks forming a sober, rounded, entrance archway presided over by a beautiful coat of arms of the founders that is repeated again above the portico of the stone mansion belonging to the same family that stands in front of the church and on a niche that stands empty today, but which previously held the group of carved figures standing in the entrance to the Museum today.