Uclés Monastery: monuments in Uclés, Cuenca at Spain is culture.

Styles

In this section you can search all our contents throughout the different stages in the history of art in Spain, to find styles such as Baroque, Gothic, Mudejar and many, many more.

Modernism and Avant-garde movements The turn of the century brought new winds of modernity. The aesthetic sensibility of the time was marked by a different, freer attitude towards art and life.

Topics

In this section you can search among all our contents by topic to find the different resources available in Spain, such as museums, routes, destinations, monuments and many, many more.

Audience

This section provides access to all the contents in a personalised way, according to your own particular interests and socio-demographic profile.

Professionals

Innovation in culture

Autonomous Regions

This section provides access to the contents in each autonomous region by browsing through maps.

Architecture and monuments / Renaissance / Uclés

Uclés Monastery

Share
Locate

Add to favourites

Exterior of Uclés monastery. Cuenca © Turespaña
Interior of Uclés monastery. Cuenca © Turespaña

The Escorial of La Mancha

The monastery is located within the fortress of Uclés (12th century) which was built on a vast swathe of land: one square kilometre surrounded by walls, bastions, buttresses and crenellated towers.

The new building was raised in the 16th century in the Renaissance style although the south façade, the best known of the monastery, is Baroque and was built by Pedro de Ribera. It has two large doors decorated with scallop shells on crosses of Saint James. The decoration on the façade consists of suits of armour, helmets, pennants and a half-body sculpture of the Apostle. Across the entrance way there is a courtyard with a double cloister. There is a water cistern with a Baroque stone well with the coat of arms of the Order of Saint James. The refectory has a coffered ceiling worked in pine wood with 36 coffers representing the knights of the Order, presided by the emperor Charles V. The sacristy has two right-angled naves. The two windows are decorated with sculptures. In the church, built by Francisco de Mora, there is a nave with a transept and several side chapels dating from the 16th century, interconnected by means of small semicircular arches. The main altarpiece is particularly worth noting, with a painting by Francisco Ricci, and tombs with the remains of the nobleman Don Rodrigo and his son Jorge Manrique, author of 'Stanzas on the death of his father'. There is a regal and elegant main stairway which leads from the courtyard to the second floor.