Fodor's Expert Review Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales
After a 20-month closure for renovations, this important 16th-century monastery reopened to the public in late 2021 with 200 new works from its art collection on display. The plain brick-and-stone facade belies an opulent interior strewn with paintings by Francisco de Zurbarán, Titian, and Pieter Bruegel the Elder—all part of the dowry of new monastery inductees—as well as a hall of sumptuous tapestries crafted from drawings by Peter Paul Rubens. Fifty works from the collection were meticulously restored as part of the recent renovations. The convent was founded in 1559 by Juana of Austria, one of Felipe II's sisters, who ruled Spain while he was in England and the Netherlands. It houses 33 different chapels—the age of Christ when he died and the maximum number of nuns allowed to live at the monastery—with more than 120 immaculately preserved crucifixes among them. About a dozen nuns still live here and grow vegetables in the garden. You... READ MORE
After a 20-month closure for renovations, this important 16th-century monastery reopened to the public in late 2021 with 200 new works from its art collection on display. The plain brick-and-stone facade belies an opulent interior strewn with paintings by Francisco de Zurbarán, Titian, and Pieter Bruegel the Elder—all part of the dowry of new monastery inductees—as well as a hall of sumptuous tapestries crafted from drawings by Peter Paul Rubens. Fifty works from the collection were meticulously restored as part of the recent renovations. The convent was founded in 1559 by Juana of Austria, one of Felipe II's sisters, who ruled Spain while he was in England and the Netherlands. It houses 33 different chapels—the age of Christ when he died and the maximum number of nuns allowed to live at the monastery—with more than 120 immaculately preserved crucifixes among them. About a dozen nuns still live here and grow vegetables in the garden. You must take a tour in order to visit the convent, and tickets must be bought online ahead of time (they sell out fast); those who don't speak Spanish can access an English guide through the app.
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