In our travel around Spain we have been to the nice vernacular village of Guadalupe, where the beautiful Our Lady’s royal monastery stands. It was built from the 14th to the 17th century and is an original mixture of more different styles and above all a strongly symbolic Spanish monument, as it is associated with the Reconquest of the Iberian peninsula by the Catholic Kings Fernand and Isabel and the discover of the Americas by Christopher Columbus, which both happened in 1492. It is also one of the most important pilgrimage places in the world and one of the most sacred places for Spanish-speaking Catholics, above all for those living in all Latin America. In fact the cult of the Virgin statue, found in Guadalupe in the 13th century, was exported in America by Spanish Conquistadores, mainly born in the Extremadura region, in which the monastery is situated; here the first American people were baptised.

As it is situated in the middle of nowhere, the travel to go there strongly proved our patience. From Cáceres it is 130 km on a never ending winding (but panoramic) road with some passes, and the same to go away from Guadalupe towards Toledo (180 km). To enter the monastery, the opening time is from 9.30 to 13 and from 15.30 to 19. You can find information about it on the web pages http://www.puebladeguadalupe.net/5monasterio/index.htm. We arrived quite early - but not so much, at 10.30 - and there was a problem: the visits are only available when the number of 50 people is reached and there was nobody waiting. So we had to wait 30 minutes and fortunately they let us get in with a group of only 25 people.

It was however interesting to see the fine exterior of all the sides of the monastery, with decorated portals and doors, nice strong towers and slender turrets, and above all the stunning monumental façade, called atrium, of the church, with its strange fine curvilinear decoration, rose windows, a beautiful dome and portals; the doors are decorated with wonderful bronze plaques. Only from the exterior, you can see the 18th century New Church, built by a descendant of Christopher Columbus.

First the guide brings you to the beautiful cloister, built in brick from 1389 to 1405 in the Mudéjar style (Christian application of Arab architectonic features) and painted in white and red. There is a nice Plateresque portal and a small Gothic pavilion in which a fountain is located. The architecture is quite impressive, but the most striking and original feature here is the small Mudéjar chapel in the middle, very harmonic with its strong base of arches and a slender group of green points on it. I’ve never seen a type of building like this before. We haven't visited the second Gothic cloister in the guided tour and I don’t know even if it is accessible. After the cloister you will visit the quite boring Museum of Vestments, the Museum of Illuminated Books, with nice exemplars in the Gothic Chapter House, and the Museum of Ancient Paintings and Sculptures, with beautiful works by great artists like El Greco, Francisco Zurbarán and Francisco Goya, all situated on the ground floor. The visit continues on the first floor and first brings you to the stunning Baroque sacristy (preceded by a nice room and followed by the Saint Jerome’s Chapel), built in the 17th century, one of the most beautiful in Spain, with fine decorations and above all the striking 11 paintings by Zurbarán; it is maybe the nicest feature of the monastery. Through the Saint Catherine's chapel, built in the 15th century, square with an octagonal dome with lantern, containing nice tomb, you will reach the octagonal 16th century Reliquaries Chapel, which contains in alcoves interesting reliquaries. Another wonderful feature of the monastery is the adjacent 17th century Baroque Camarín de la Virgen, a small octagonal building situated behind the presbytery of the main church. The ground floor, finely decorated, is accessible from the church, while you will visit the upper floor in the guided tour. The vaults are finely decorated with plaster and stucco and above all the walls are covered by 9 stunning paintings by Luca Giordano.

The last part of the tour was led by a monk and in the Camarín turned out that our visit was more intended as a pilgrimage, naturally paid, to see the Virgin and, above all, to kiss its reliquaries; obviously this ritual seemed us strongly exaggerated also because almost all the visitors, or rather pilgrims, after a prayer recited by the monks, formed a queue and the sculpture was turned from the church to the Camarín, as it is possible to turn it to both the sides.

The visit ended in the church, built in the 14th and 15th centuries, also accessible without buying the ticket. It has three aisles and a wonderful Gothic vaulting (the nicest is that of the dome) and contains beautiful tombs and altars, notably that of the Major Chapel, belonging to the typical Spanish typology of the retables, enormous sculpted and painted main altars that you will find only in the Iberian peninsula.

I quite liked this monastery, perfectly conserved and authentic, because of its quite unusual combination of beautiful Gothic and Baroque art but I think that it is rather worthy to be visited if you are in the Extremadura region more than in a separated travel to see specifically it. I think it justifies its inscription on the WHL (the title of the WHS may be more precise with the official Spanish name of the monastery “Nuestra Señora” rather than “Santa Maria”) and maybe a more important reason than its beautiful architectonic and art features is its connection with important events in the world history and with the widespread cult of the Virgin.

In the picture is the main façade of the church of the monastery.