THE SACRISTY

We know nothing of the Gothic sacristy, except that it was in the same place that the Baroque ante-sacry occupies today.

The current sacristy was designed by Francisco de la Riva Ladrón de Guevara (1686 – 1741) and was built between 1732 and 1734. It is divided into two spaces: the antechamber that communicates with the ambulatory and the sacristy itself. The latter is a space with a cruciform plan that in its central part is covered with a dome on a drum supported by pendentives. The architecture, despite the date of construction, is very sober, in line with the ambulatory. However, the decoration of the doorway that connects the ambulatory with the antechamber refers to the style of the mid-XVII century, along the lines of the Capilla de los Vigiles (1627-1640), so it must be attributed to Juan de Naveda ( 1590-1638); the relief of the Annunciation, carved on the spandrels, responds to the style of Luis Fernández de la Vega (1601 – 1675).

In the sacristy an interesting set of paintings is preserved, among which the oil on canvas "Santa Eulalia de Mérida" (1640), by Diego Valentín Díaz (1586 - 1660) and the fresco on the dome with the representation of the "Asunción of the Virgin”, a copy by Francisco Martínez Bustamante (1680 – 1745) of an original by Giovanni Lanfranco (1582 – 1647).

In 1766, José Bernardo de la Meana (1715 – 1790) carved two ewers and a basin in jasper, as well as two wooden high-reliefs with images of Ecce Homo and La Dolorosa.

The chests of drawers were made taking advantage of the fragments of the Gothic chest of drawers, they are the work of José Bernardo de la Meana and the carpenter Juan de Valville.

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