The Monastery of St. Jerome from the inside

The Royal Monastery of San Jerónimo is one of the great construction projects of the city of Granada. Its origins date back to 1492 in the military camp that the Catholic Monarchs had set up in Santa Fe. It was not until 1504 that it was installed in its current location.

Would you like to see the Monastery of San Jerónimo in Granada from the inside? Would you like to see all its rooms and chambers? Read on, we tell you all about it in this article.

The Royal Monastery of San Jerónimo from the inside

The construction time between the Church and the Monastery was different, the latter being faster. It has a total of two entrances, one through calle Gran Capitán via Compás de San Jerónimo and the other via calle Rector López Argüeta.

Its doorway consists of a semicircular arch, which is presided over by a sculpture of the Virgen de las Angustias. Once inside, we find a courtyard, known as the compass, through which we can access both the church and the monastery.

The façade of the Monastery of San Jerónimo is made up of two sections:

• The first with a lintelled door and a pair of Doric columns where we can see the motto of the Monastery ‘Soli Deo, Honor et Gloria’, which translated into English means ‘Only to God, Honour and Glory’.
• The second body is composed of a curved split pediment, four pinnacles and an image of the Immaculate Conception. This is the first monastery dedicated to the Immaculate Conception.

After entering the interior of the Monastery of San Jerónimo, the first thing we can see is a hallway with cobblestones from Granada. 

The next room we enter is the sales office, where two sculptures in urns stand out. They correspond to the Immaculate Conception and Saint Jerome.

The outbuildings

Next we come to the cloister, which is made up of two sections. The visit to the different rooms is made through the cloister, starting on the right.

En primer lugar, podemos observar una capilla donde las monjas tienen el coro, cuya portada es obra de Diego de Siloé. Más adelante, localizamos el segundo claustro, el cual no es visitable, ya que forma parte de la clausura. Y posteriormente, accedemos a las escaleras que dan hacia una segunda planta cuyo arcos de acceso muestran el lema comentado anteriormente.

Firstly, we can see a chapel where the nuns have their choir, the façade of which is the work of Diego de Siloé. Further on, we find the second cloister, which cannot be visited, as it forms part of the cloister. Then we reach the stairs that lead to a first floor whose access arches show the motto mentioned above.

We find ourselves in the second wing of the cloister where we can find two rooms.

• The refectory. This was the monks' dining room, which was accessed through a Renaissance doorway by Diego de Siloé.
• The Sala de Profundis. Before entering the dining room, the monks prayed the psalm de profundis, hence its name.

Consequently, in the third wing, we find a series of other rooms.

• The Chapter House. This was the room where the Abbot met with the monks. Matters related to the monastery and its inhabitants were discussed, and the Rule was read and remembered.
• The Hall of the Chapter of Faults. The room is presided over by a 16th century altarpiece. In it, in addition to the paintings, the burial of Fray Pedro Ramiro de Alba, a Hieronymite monk who was archbishop of Granada, stands out.
• The Sacristy. We can access it through a Renaissance doorway with a coat of arms of Cardinal Mendoza. We can also find a carving that the Gran Capitán carried in his battles of the Infant Jesus.

In the fourth wing there is a reference to Fray Hernando de Talavera and his mother, Sister Cristina de Arteaga. It was she who managed to return the monastery to the Hieronymites. We also find the door that gives access to the interior of the church through a Plateresque doorway by Siloé.

Finally, at the end of the corridor we can see the Chapel of the Virgen de las Angustias, whose doorway is one of the most important in the whole cloister.

What did you think of the Monastery of San Jerónimo from the inside? Did you know all its rooms and rooms? If you still haven't seen the Royal Monastery of San Jerónimo or you want to know it even more in depth after having seen part of its interior, don't hesitate to buy your tickets through our website.

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