Episcopal Palace of Tarazona: A Renaissance Episcopal Residence in Spain
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Crown of Aragon, Spanish
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Palace
On this page8 sections
History
The Episcopal Palace of Tarazona is a Spanish Renaissance palace in Spain that developed from a Muslim zuda, or fortified citadel and palace-fortress, and became the historic residence of the bishop of the Diocese of Tarazona. Its transformation into an episcopal residence began in 1386 and continued into the sixteenth century, when Bishop González de Munébrega promoted major Renaissance works. The palace is owned by the diocese and houses the diocesan archive.
From Muslim fortress to episcopal residence
The site first served as a Muslim zuda, the administrative and defensive centre of a settlement. It later became a residence of the kings of Aragon. After the episcopal residences at El Pueyo in the Almehora district were destroyed, Bishop Pérez Calvillo purchased the building in 1386. He began the extensive process of converting it into an episcopal palace, but the work extended beyond his episcopate.
The transformation was completed only during the episcopate of González de Munébrega, who served from 1547 to 1567 and directed the later Renaissance phase. This period gave the palace its principal artistic character, while retaining the importance of a site that had already served military, royal, and ecclesiastical purposes.
The palace and the Cortes of Aragon
The palace entered the political history of Aragon during the Alterations of Aragon, a conflict involving the institutions and political order of the Crown of Aragon. In 1591, Philip II held the Cortes of Aragon there. The Cortes were the representative estates of the Crown of Aragon, and their session in the palace continued the building’s association with the government of the territory.
The Cortes held there in 1592 were ratified by Philip II on 2 December of that year. Their decisions severely weakened the Justice of Aragon, a historic office concerned with legal mediation and the protection of rights. The palace later became associated with a symbolic revival of that office. On 2 December 1987, the democratic Cortes of Aragon held an extraordinary session in the Hall of Bishops to elect Emilio Gastón as the 67th Justice of Aragon. Gastón was the first person to hold the office after its definitive abolition through the Decrees of Nueva Planta in 1707, measures that abolished or substantially reorganized institutions and laws in several former territories of the Crown of Aragon. The session took place 395 years after the 1592 meeting in the same hall.
Protection and modern conservation
The palace was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest in the category of Monument in 2020. In recent years, conservation work has addressed the roofs, strengthened the structure, and completely restored and re-roofed the Renaissance courtyard. Several rooms are used for exhibitions, while further work remains necessary on the façades and interiors.
Remains
Exterior and Renaissance courtyard
The palace stands on the conglomerate rock that underlies much of Tarazona’s historic centre. Its façade towards the Queiles River rests on six large semicircular brick arches. Above them are several galleries of small arches, some of which have been considerably altered. The south façade is arranged like an exterior altarpiece, giving the building a strongly composed Renaissance frontage.
The Renaissance courtyard contains Aragonese columns, a frieze, and carved wooden corbels. Its complete restoration and new roofing have helped preserve this central architectural space as part of the palace’s surviving layout.
Ceremonial staircase and episcopal rooms
The dome above the ceremonial staircase was made by Pietro Morone, a Renaissance artist associated with the palace. It is hemispherical and richly decorated with coffers, and rises from a dodecagonal drum. Portraits of Charles I, who also ruled as Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, the future Philip II while still a prince, and Bishop González de Munébrega appear on the drum.
The decoration continues with female figures supported by winged herms, sculptural human forms on tapering supports. These figures stand above shell-shaped squinches, curved supports that help carry the transition into the dome and contain male figures. A frieze of centaurs and children joined by vegetal stems runs around the lower part, accompanied by medallions and vases. The dome is completed by a lantern.
The Hall of Bishops contains portraits of the bishops of the See of Tarazona and is covered by a fifteenth-century Mudejar alfarje, a wooden coffered ceiling or roof structure. Mudejar art combined Christian-ruled Spanish architecture with Islamic forms, techniques, and decoration. The hall therefore preserves both the political setting associated with the palace and an important example of its earlier decorative tradition.
Graffiti and displaced ceilings
The cells in the lower part of the palace preserve more than 200 graffiti incised by prisoners from the sixteenth century onward. Their religious and military messages provide a direct record of the marks left by people confined within the building.
In the first half of the twentieth century, three Mudejar ceilings from the Episcopal Palace were apparently removed and sold to William Randolph Hearst, an American newspaper and media publisher. One of these ceilings survives in Monterrey, Mexico, while the palace itself retains other evidence of its medieval and Renaissance building traditions.
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