Fundación Casa Ducal de Medinaceli

In addition to arranging private visits to this monument, located little more than 30 minutes from Madrid, you can host various kinds of events in its superb, spacious Renaissance courtyards and other areas adapted to this purpose. By doing so you will furthermore contribute to its conservation and dissemination.

This Spanish architect, who was trained in the Plateresque style learned from his relatives, the Egas, was responsible for introducing Renaissance architecture into Toledo. As maestro mayor (chief architect) of the primary cathedral and architect of the Reales Alcázares, in Fernando Marías' opinion his activity may be divided into two periods separated by the beginning of the works on the Hospital Tavera.

The founder of the Hospital de San Bautista was a courtly prelate, cardinal and archbishop of Toledo, who presided over the Council of Castile for fifteen years and became one of the chief advisors to the Emperor Charles V. According to the historian Antonio Rumeu de Armas, "as a politican, he is, after Cisneros, the most significant figure of the century".

An architect and sculptor in addition to a maker of railings and glazier. In 1575 he took over from Hernán González de Lara as overseer of the second most important works in the imperial city, those of the Hospital de San Juan Bautista (Tavera) and also as chief architect of the cathedral. At the same time, he was also in the service of Doña Luisa de la Cerda, widow of, Ares Pardo, the Seigneur of Malagón

Born in Candia (Crete) in 1541, he is regarded as the artist who best developed the Mannerist style. After training as a painter of icons within the sphere of influence of Byzantine art, he received from his parents, or subsequently acquired, a broad humanistic grounding that made him a cultivated and highly learned man. He devoted the final years of his life to designing the iconographic scheme for the church of the Hospital Tavera.

The youngest daughter of the 2nd Duke of Medinaceli, she married Ares Pardo de Saavedra, the first patron of the San Juan Bautista foundation. The early death of her husband in 1561 placed the effective patronage of this foundation in her hands and, accordingly, that of the Hospital Tavera works as the legal guardian of her son. As the protector of Saint Teresa of Jesus, she sponsored the construction of religious works for the Barefoot Carmelite nuns.

In his will the cardinal bequeathed the patronage of the San Juan Bautista Foundation that governed the Hospital to his nephew Ares Pardo de Saavedra and whatever members of the House should succeed him. Ares Pardo purchased the seigneurship of Malagón, a former commandery of the Order of Calatrava which, after being incorporated into his estate in 1561 and becoming a marquisate in 1599, gave its name to this house that resulted from a merger of the Pardo and Tavera lineages through the marriage of the cardinal's parents.

The Hospital de San Juan Bautista, better known as the Hospital Tavera, is the most important building of the Toledan classical Renaissance style. It was initially built as a general hospital during the most lively and cosmopolitan period of the imperial city...

This building began to be erected in 1541 on the instructions of Cardinal Juan Tavera, in a unique and fleeting ideological and artistic environment. This makes it particularly important to distinguish between the project as conceived by the founder and the final building...

Descubra un museo de pintura y artes decorativas de los siglos XV al XVIII instalado en la zona más noble del antiguo hospital