Úbeda Travel Guide

The Iglesia de El Salvador (Sacra Capilla del Salvador) stands at the eastern end of Plaza Vázquez de Molina in the old town of Úbeda, Jaén, Andalusia — a pinnacle of Spanish Renaissance religious architecture. Commissioned in 1536 by Francisco de los Cobos, secretary of state to Emperor Charles V (Charles I of Spain), as a pantheon for the Cobos family, it was first designed by Diego de Siloé and with Andrés de Vandelvira taking over construction in 1540, who completed and consecrated it in 1559. The church has a triangular plan and a single tower capped by a Central European onion dome; its Plateresque main façade, designed by Esteban Jamete, frames the door with Roman gods, runs a frieze of Exodus scenes and carries the arms of the Cobos and Mendoza families — a programme built around death and memory. The great wooden altarpiece at the main altar, showing the Transfiguration, is by Alonso Berruguete and was damaged in the Civil War; the sacristy ranks among the finest of the Spanish Renaissance. In 2003 the church, the Palacio de los Cobos across the square and the neighbouring town of Baeza were inscribed together on the UNESCO World Heritage List as the Renaissance Monumental Ensembles of Úbeda and Baeza.