A PIECE OF A CALVARY

SURROUNDINGS 

The headquarters of the National Sculpture Museum of Valladolid are distributed over several historical buildings, amongst which are the Renaissance-style town mansions of Villena and the building popularly known as "Del Sol" or "the Count of Gondomar", both of which make up the church of San Benito el Viejo. Basically, the most outstanding of all the buildings are the Chapel and the College of San Gregorio, a foundation dedicated to the formation of Dominican friars that gained momentum from the year 1487 thanks to Friar Alonso de Burgos, Confessor to Isabella I, the Catholic queen. Alonso de Burgos also successively held the chairs of Cordoba, Cuenca and Palencia and the post of Head Chancellor of Castile.

In this extraordinary group of Late Castilian Gothic buildings, a two-story cloister stands out particularly, the upper level of which is richly ornamented. Work on the cloister had been completed around the year 1492. Work of the portal, on top of the arch of which the founder of the chapel is depicted making a gift of the building to Saints Gregory and Paul under a royal coat of arms surrounded by exuberant decoration, was completed in the year 1499.