Convento de San Esteban

Convento de San Esteban
Commissioned by Juan Álvarez de Toledo (Spain, 1488 - 1557)
1524 - 1610.
Plateresque/Gothic/Renaissance.
Salamanca, Spain.

                 The Convento de San Esteban, situated in the Spanish city of Salamanca, stands not only as an architectural showpiece of Renaissance style but also as an important site for understanding the development of education in Europe. While construction started in 1524 under the patronage of Fray Juan Álvarez de Toledo, the building was finished in 1610 ("History - Saint Stephen's Salamanca"). The extended period of construction contributed to the mixture of Plateresque, Gothic and Baroque styles observed in the building. The architect in charge of its construction, Juan de Alava, worked in Salamanca during this period of transition from Gothic to Renaissance style (Hourihane 23). The facade of the church, which is composed of a grand altarpiece under a massive triumphal arch with coffered barrel vaults, displays a fine example of Plateresque design (Gadea). The interior follows a refined Gothic style and consists of single nave with chapels on the flanks in a giant Latin cross plan (Hourihane 23). The main cloister in the building, the Cloister of the Kings, boasts semicircular Renaissance arches around its garden (Gadea).

                 The convent was constructed for and by The Dominican Order of Preachers who arrived in Salamanca around the year 1222, at first residing in the Church of San Juan el Blanco, near the River Tormes. However, when a flooding of the river swept away the church, the Bishop of Salamanca commissioned the new building of the Church of San Esteban within the city walls. The convent that stands today replaced the original Dominican monastery in the sixteenth century, at the orders of Cardinal Juan Álvarez de Toledo ("History - Saint Stephen's Salamanca"). Since their arrival in Salamanca, the Dominicans formed a special collaboration with the Cathedral as well as the members of the city council, which is why they exercised great influence over the University of Salamanca ever since its initiation in 1255 (Garcia-Serrano 57). The convent of San Esteban was soon used as a Dominican Studium and started offering classes in Arts, Philosophy and Theology (Garcia-Serrano 61). By the end of the thirteenth century, San Esteban had become so vital to the intellectual activity of the region that it was promoted to Studium Generale in the provincial Chapter of the Dominicans held in Barcelona (Bezares 22).

                While the University of Salamanca focused its educational efforts in law, the church of San Esteban became a center for the teaching of theology ever since the establishment of the old building in the thirteenth century. When theology was introduced at the university in the fourteenth century, the Dominicans of San Esteban were invited to chair the department as a result of their established reputation as pedagogues (Bezares 22). Around this time, scholastic methods of argumentation had started to “intermingle with university rhetoric” across Europe, which was true for Salamanca as well (Van Liere 62). The scholastic method consisted of logical debate and analysis of issues from varying viewpoints, and therefore, the study of the seven liberal arts were essential for the pursuit of scholasticism. Consequently, universities required students to possess fundamental knowledge of the trivium and the quadrivium. Together, the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) and the quadrivium (geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and music) comprised the seven liberal arts in the medieval university.  

                Towards the beginning of the Renaissance era, when the rise of humanism led to a decline in conventional theology, the university at Salamanca started teaching more practical theology which was closer to humanism than ever before. A major contribution of Dominican scholastics to this kind of education was their emphasis on freedom and individuality. Their focus on commutative justice and distinctions between legal and moral obligations became essential to the formation of classical liberal theory (Hamowy 451). Similarly, certain aspects of the Late Scholastic education such as the study of human behavior, economic development and political analysis make up important parts of a liberal arts education as we know it today (Hamowy 451).

                In the nineteenth century, San Esteban was used by French invaders as a barrack for Napoleon's soldiers. Over the course of this period, the convent also lost a great deal of its artistic beauty due to rough treatment (Gadea). After serving various purposes throughout history, the monastery now accommodates the Pontifical Faculty of Theology of San Esteban, successor to the General Study of Theology originally established in 1222 ("History - Saint Stephen's Salamanca").

Works Cited

Gadea, Sira. " 'Viajar Con El Arte' : Historia e Iglesia de San Esteban, en Salamanca" Web. 20 Apr. 2016.

Garcia-Serrano, Francisco. Preachers of the City - The Expansion of Dominican Order in Castile. New Orleans: U of the South, 1997. Print.

"History - Saint Stephen's Salamanca." Oficina Internet Dominicas. Web. 15 Apr. 2016.

Hourihane, Colum. The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture. New York: Oxford UP, 2012. Print.

Hamowy, Ronald. The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. California: SAGE Publications, 2008. Print.

Pedro Bezares, Luis E Rodriguez-San. The University of Salamanca from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad De Salamanca, 2013. Print.

Van Liere, Katherine Elliot. Humanism and Scholasticism in Sixteenth-Century Academe: Five Student Orations from the University of Salamanca. 53.1 (2000): 57-101.