Tordesillas

Tordesillas
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By h.b. - Apr 16, 2009 - 6:26 PM
Tordesillas is known as the place where Juana La Loca spent most of her reign confined in the palace by first her father and then her son

Tordesillas - Plaza Mayor - Wikipedia

Tordesillas, a small town of around 9,000 inhabitants in Castilla y León, 30 kilometres to the southwest of its provincial capital, Valladolid, is known as the place where Juana La Loca, the third child of the Catholic Kings, nominal Queen of Castilla and Aragón, and mother of two Kings of Spain, spent most of her reign confined in the palace, first by her father, Fernando el Católico, then by her son, the Holy Roman Emperor, Carlos I of Spain.

The palace where Juana I of Castilla spent 46 years of her life no longer stands, but the rich past of this town is evidenced by its other historical buildings, not least, the Casas del Tratado, two adjoining palaces where what is known as the Treaty of Tordesillas was negotiated and eventually signed on 7th June 1494, by which Spain and Portugal agreed the division of lands in the newly-discovered New World.

The Royal Monastery of Santa Clara has its own tale to tell. It was originally a palace built by Alfonso XI in around 1340 to mark his victory in the Battle of Salado against the Moors. He ordered it built in the mudéjar style and it is considered one of the best examples of mudéjar architecture in Castilla y León. Construction of this fascinating building was continued by Alfonso’s son, Pedro I, otherwise known as Pedro the Cruel. It was here that his wife, Blanca de Borbón, took refuge along with her mother, María of Portugal, after the King left his new wife two days after their marriage to return to his lover, María de Padilla. Pedro I moved into the Palace with his mistress the following year in 1354, and his two younger children, the Infanta Isabel and the Infante Alonso, were born there in 1355 and 1359. It was converted into a monastery in 1363 in accordance with Pedro’s will, and the building which we see today is a mixture of styles from the XIV to the XVIII centuries, with its Arab baths, its Moorish patio, and the gothic church.

Leonor of Aragón, widow of Fernando I of Portugal and mother-in-law of Juan II of Spain, was imprisoned here in 1430, and, while it is said to be a common misconception that Juana la Loca was also imprisoned here, a clavichord believed to have belonged to her is housed in the monastery, along with a virginal said to have been built for Felipe II. Her body lay in the crypt of the magnificent Saldaña Chapel for almost 20 years until her remains were removed for transfer to the Royal Chapel in Granada, where they now rest with the bodies of the Catholic Kings and her husband, Felipe el Hermoso, whose body his bereaved wife kept in Santa Clara for 13 years before it was moved.

Elsewhere in the town is the 16th century Iglesia de San Antolín, now a museum of religious art, with its altarpiece sculpted by Juan de Juni, and the alabaster tomb of Don Pedro González Alderete.
The Iglesia de Santa María is the town’s largest church, and was built in the gothic style and remodelled on the style of El Escorial at the end of the 16th century.
There is no documented evidence of when the bridge over the Duero River was built, but its style dates it from mediaeval times. It is known that the structure underwent remodelling in the fifteenth century, with later renovations in the 15th and 18th centuries.

The most recent historic event to have taken place in Tordesillas was in 1994, on 7th June that year to mark the fifth centenary of the Treaty of Tordesillas, when the King and Queen of Spain, Don Juan Carlos and Doña Sofia, together with the then-President of Portugal, Mario Soares, officially opened the restored Casas de Tratado where the historic treaty was signed five centuries before.

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