Andrés de Vandelvira

Andrés de Vandelvira, born in 1505 in Alcaraz (Albacete), was a renowned Spanish Renaissance architect who left his mark on the province of Jaén, among other municipalities. In the cities of Úbeda and Baeza, icons of the Renaissance of the period and declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO, the work of Andrés de Vandelvira can be seen in the most emblematic monuments of each of these cities.

In addition to being an architect, Andrés de Vandelvira was a cultured man who studied the most famous treatises of the time and put them into practice, always with his own stamp. In the province of Jaén, the Diocese itself and several well-connected nobles ordered him to build great monuments that we can still admire today.

Andrés de Vandelvira was responsible for the introduction of the vaulting style in Spain. This style is understood for its similarity to the shape that a wet handkerchief takes when it is hung by its four points, but in an inverted form.

Early years

Andrés de Vandelvira"s family origins remain a mystery to this day. There are those who believe that he is of Flemish descent and there are those who think that he is the son of "Juan el de Elvira", who had been rooted in the lands of Alcaraz since the 15th century.

For a long time, until well into the 20th century, it was believed that the architect was the son of another architect, Pedro de Vandelvira, who would have worked in Jaén Cathedral, studied in the most prestigious schools in Italy and met Michelangelo himself. However, it is now known that this is a mistake, since the author Martín Jimena Jurado confused the name Pedro with Andrés, so that Pedro de Vandelvira never existed.

Andrés de Vandelvira"s first confirmed steps appear when the young man was around the age of majority, about 18 years old. At that time, the young architect was already doing modest stonemasonry work in Alcaraz, his native town. The convent of San Francisco and the church of San Ignacio were among Vandelvira"s first works.

Andrés de Vandelvira married one of the daughters of Francisco de Luna, a renowned architect of the time, from whom it is believed he learned his trade. In 1529, Francisco de Luna immersed himself in the work on the Convent of Uclés, the main seat of the Order of Santiago. Vandelvira, who was only 21 years old, joined this project and thus began to shape his personality as an architect. The works at Uclés provided Vandelvira with direct knowledge of the elegant language of the early Renaissance, known as "plateresque".

Guided by the influence of this movement, in 1531 Andrés de Vandelvira built the main square of Alcaraz and numerous civil and religious buildings around it, such as the Alhorí gate and the Tardón tower, both in Alcaraz.

Vandelvira and the province of Jaén

In 1533, Vandelvira visited the municipality of Villacarrillo, the birthplace of his wife and the beginning of the architect"s career in the province of Jaén. It was in these lands that Vandelvira acquired most of his artistic and personal patrimony, and where he lived until the day of his death in 1575.

Thanks to his connection with Francisco de Luna, Vandelvira managed to work on various small works in Orcera, Hornos and Segura de la Sierra, which enabled him to establish himself as an architect. It was during this period, around 1530, that he was involved in the Church of La Asunción.

Úbeda

To speak of Andrés de Vandelvira is to speak of Úbeda and Francisco de los Cobos.

Francisco de los Cobos, born in Úbeda, was Secretary of State to King Charles I of Spain and Charles V of France, King Caesar. Thanks to his influence and his ties with the crown, de los Cobos managed to initiate a major project to modernise his native city with the construction of large new facilities: hospitals, university, churches, palaces... To this end, he was assisted by Andrés de Vandelvira, who was awarded the works of the Sacra Capilla del Salvador in 1536 and the convent of Santa Clara, both icons of the city.

From then on, Andrés de Vandelvira"s popularity only increased. Not only nobles such as Francisco de los Cobos wanted to enjoy the architect"s work, but also the dean Fernando Ortega wanted to count on Vandelvira for the church of San Nicolás. The Council of Úbeda even commissioned several civil works from him, such as the Ariza bridge.

Vandelvira was based in the city of Úbeda for almost 20 years to carry out all the works he was commissioned to do: the palace of Las Cadenas, the Vela de los Cobos palace, the Hospital de Santiago, the palace of the Marquis of La Rambla...

Sabiote and Canena

The professional relationship between Andrés de Vandelvira and Francisco de los Cobos extended beyond the borders of Úbeda, reaching, for example, Sabiote and Canena.

Francisco de los Cobos arrived in Canena and bought the town. It was then that Vandelvira began work on the castle of Canena, and it was inside the castle that he projected all his knowledge as an architect: a multitude of proportions, rhythms and harmonies, architectural orders, ornaments and emblems typical of Renaissance architecture. The upper gallery, with its vaulted vaults, a characteristic motif of Vandelvira"s architecture, is particularly noteworthy.

In 1543, de los Cobos wanted to renovate the old Hispano-Muslim citadel of Sabiote into a Renaissance palace and, for this purpose, he relied on Vandelvira. Vandelvira"s Italian influences can be seen in both Sabiote and Canena.

The architect preserved its structure and appearance as a watchtower, fortress and defence, but he endowed it with arrow slits, heraldic coats of arms and replaced the parade ground with a Renaissance courtyard. The castle forms a spectacular rectangular enclosure with three large towers. It is exterior, picturesque and has a typical Renaissance elegance that contrasts with the military robustness of the old fortress.

Jaén Cathedral

In his period of greatest professional expansion and artistic maturity, Vandelvira received the offer to build Jaén Cathedral. At that time, other professional colleagues and renowned artists had already been called in; however, it was Vandelvira who became the main master builder in 1553.

From that moment on, he began to work on the structure of the cathedral of Jaén, although he could only finish the sacristy, the chapter house and the burial vault with the upper dependencies, as he died in 1575. However, his predecessors wanted to leave Vandelvira"s mark on the rest of the cathedral.

The contract on Jaén cathedral was intended to recover other projects led by the Diocese of Jaén, such as the modernisation of other temples from the Gothic to the Renaissance style. Some of these are the cathedral of Baeza, a city in which Vandelvira also left a great legacy, the church of the Immaculate Conception in Huelma, the sanctuary of the Virgen de la Cabeza, which hosts the oldest pilgrimage in the world, and the basilica of Santa María la Mayor in Linares.

Other works

The lord of La Guardia de Jaén, Rodrigo Messia Carrillo, commissioned Vandelvira to build the convent of Santo Domingo, known as Santa María Magdalena, as well as the project for the Church of Santa María, in Cazorla, which is currently in ruins.

In Baeza, a city closely linked to Vandelvira, Diego Valencia de Benavides, a local nobleman and enemy of Los Cobos, commissioned the architect to build a funerary chapel in the Church of San Francisco in 1558. Although the earthquake of 1755 did not leave much standing, it is known as the Benavides chapel.

Outside the province of Jaén, Andrés de Vandelvira worked on the Cathedral of Cuenca, being master builder from 1560 to 1567, on the bridge of San Pablo, the Town Hall of San Clemente and the church of Santiago Apóstol. In addition, his knowledge was indispensable for the design of Malaga Cathedral and Seville Cathedral and for the appraisal of the remodelling of a chapel in Guadix Cathedral.