San Benito de Alcántara is a monastery in

Alcántara Alcántara is a municipality in the province of Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain, on the Tagus, near Portugal. The toponym is from the Arabic word ''al-Qanṭarah'' (القنطرة) meaning "the bridge". History Archaeological findings have atteste ...

, in the

province of Cáceres The province of Cáceres ( ; es, provincia de Cáceres, ) is a province of western Spain, and makes up the northern half of the autonomous community of Extremadura. Its capital is the city of Cáceres. Other cities in the province include Pl ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

History

After the Christian conquest of Alcántara in 1213, the city was given to the military

Order of Calatrava The Order of Calatrava ( es, Orden de Calatrava, pt, Ordem de Calatrava) was one of the four Spanish military orders and the first military order founded in Castile, but the second to receive papal approval. The papal bull confirming the Orde ...

four years later. In 1218, they in turn ceded it to the order of San Julián de Pereiro, which changed its name to that of the military

Order of Alcántara The Order of Alcántara ( Leonese: ''Orde de Alcántara'', es, Orden de Alcántara), also called the Knights of St. Julian, was originally a military order of León, founded in 1166 and confirmed by Pope Alexander III in 1177. Alcántara Alc ...

. In 1488, the order's council decided to build a new monastery in the city. Construction began in 1505 and lasted for most of the 16th century. The order's main architect,

Pedro de Ybarra Pedro de Ibarra was a Spanish general who served as a Royal Governor of Spanish Florida (1603 – 1610). Early years Originally from the Basque Country, Ibarra joined the Spanish Army in his youth and eventually attained the rank of general. In 1 ...

, worked on the design. In 1706, it was sacked during the

War of Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1714. The death of childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700 led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs, Phil ...

, and it was damaged by the

1755 Lisbon earthquake The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon earthquake, impacted Portugal, the Iberian Peninsula, and Northwest Africa on the morning of Saturday, 1 November, Feast of All Saints, at around 09:40 local time. In combination wit ...

. In 1835, it was abandoned and began to fall into ruin. Later it was acquired by

Hidroeléctrica Española Iberdrola () is a Spanish multinational electric utility company based in Bilbao, Spain. Iberdrola has a workforce of around 34,000 employees serving around 31.67 million customers. Subsidiaries include Scottish Power (United Kingdom) ...

, which restored it and occupied the structure until 1966. In 1985 it went to the Fundación San Benito de Alcántara.

Architecture

The exterior's main feature are the three apses (the central polygonal and the side ones semicircular), characterized by large coat of arms. Opposite a three-storey

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...

with Renaissance arches, a semicircular auditorium has been built; the classical theatre festival of Alcantara is held here in the summer. The interior has a nave and two aisles. The cloister, in

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

-style, has a square plan with two floors. It was built atop an Moorish fortress.

External links

Page at alcantaraweb
{{DEFAULTSORT:San Benito De Alcantara 16th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Spain Monasteries in Extremadura Gothic architecture in Extremadura