Papa Luna Palace: A Renaissance Palace in Illueca, Spain
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Crown of Aragon, Spanish
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Palace
On this page8 sections
History
Papa Luna Palace is a Renaissance palace in Illueca, Spain, developed by the Christian rulers of the region over a Late Medieval fortress between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. Its architecture combines Italian influences with medieval building traditions. The palace is closely associated with Pedro de Luna, who became known as Benedict XIII, the Avignon antipope during the Western Schism, when rival claimants contested the papacy.
Medieval origins and papal association
The complex began as a Late Medieval fortress and was expanded through successive phases. In the spring of 1328, Pedro Martínez de Luna was born in a private chamber of the palace. As Benedict XIII, he later became one of the rival claimants to the papacy during the Western Schism. The palace chapel housed his mortal remains from the fifteenth century until they were disturbed during the Wars of Succession.
Renaissance transformation
During the sixteenth century, Pedro Martínez de Luna y Urrea, the first Count of Morata and Viceroy of Aragon, transformed the fortress into a palace. He added the upper gallery of arches and the principal portal. The portal’s design drew inspiration from the main facade of the Ducal Palace of Urbino, bringing an Italianate character to the building.
Seventeenth-century alterations and protection
The chapel was transformed in the seventeenth century, when the mausoleum was constructed. The same period brought major changes to the interior, including the monumental staircase and the Hall of the Crown of Aragon. Papa Luna Palace is protected as a historic monument. Its formal declaration was issued on 17 April 2006 and published on 22 May 2006.
Remains
Papa Luna Palace is a very large, elongated rectangle with three levels, built mainly from rubble masonry and brick. Four cubic towers occupy its corners. The principal facade is arranged in three levels and framed by two smaller semicircular towers. Above the main stories, the attic level appears as a continuous gallery of doubled round arches running around the palace. An attic level is a non-principal upper storey, often placed beneath the roof rather than used as a full residential floor.
Facade and entrance
The two semicircular towers are built of rubble masonry up to the gallery of small arches. Each has three blind arches and six openings arranged around its upper perimeter. The principal entrance projects about two metres beyond the towers. Its round arch is flanked by paired pilasters with plain Tuscan capitals, a restrained classical form. Above them, a frieze carries mascarons, or sculpted faces, beneath a broken volute pediment. The second level repeats the composition more simply, while the third has an undecorated opening with a small roof.
Staircase and ceremonial halls
The monumental seventeenth-century staircase occupies the former open Medieval courtyard and distributes the surrounding rooms. It ends in an arcade of round arches resting on simple columns with bases and capitals. A large dome covers the space, set over curved triangular surfaces called pendentives that allow a dome to rise above a square or polygonal area. A lantern crowns the dome and admits light.
The seventeenth-century Hall of the Crown of Aragon has a carved wooden frieze decorated with leaves, ovals, dice, and turned colonnettes. Its ceiling consists of covered wooden beams with plaster infill forming shallow vaults. The fourteenth-century Golden Hall, also called the Protocol Hall, is one of the oldest rooms in the complex and forms its organizing axis. Its flat coffered ceiling retains gilded decoration, Luna heraldic shields, and vegetal motifs. A Gothic-Mudéjar frieze runs around the room in polychrome openwork plaster. Mudéjar architecture combines Islamic-derived building and decorative traditions with Christian settings.
Chapel and mausoleum
The small private chamber associated with Benedict XIII has a plaster frieze of interlaced pointed arches painted red, white, and blue. The original decorative scheme of its coffered ceiling has not survived. The chapel is entered through a sixteenth-century Renaissance portal. Its round arch rests on paired fluted columns and carries Renaissance garlands, griffins, and cornucopias, horn-shaped ornamental motifs associated with abundance.
The seventeenth-century mausoleum is made of polychrome plaster. Its front displays abundant representations of Benedict XIII’s arms, preserving the memorial connection between the chapel and the palace’s most renowned occupant.
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