The Monastery of Dominican Nuns in Loeches (Madrid) is a foundation by the marriage between Gaspar de Guzmán (3rd Count of Olivares and Duke of Sanlúcar la Mayor) and his wife Inés de Zúñiga, who in 1633 bought this lordship in Loeches. Both of them held the highest positions during the monarchy of Philip IV of Spain, the “Planet King”. The complex of Loeches had the objective of creating an enclosed convent for Dominican nuns linked to the retirement palace belonging to the count-dukes, closely linked to architecture, nature, the gardens, the vegetable gardens and water. Based on a complex symbolic program, both the palace (nowadays completely disappeared in its visible part) and the convent were used to save a rich trousseau consisting on tapestries, sculptures, landscape, religious, allegorical and figurative paintings and books (the count-duke was the owner of the best and most extensible library of his period, which was dispersed and divided when he died). Characters from Sevillian Royal Alcázares, the Royal Armoury, the Palace of Zarzuela and the familiar houses of the Guzmanes, apart from the known as “Imperial House of Yuste” – from which Olivares was named not only commandant (as in the previous complexes) but also supervisor of the restoration works – they were gathered up in Loeches. Olivares assumes and wisely reinterprets, in a clear emulation, part of the symbolic and functional program chosen by Carlos for his last house in Yuste. The whole complex was imbued by the spirit of the baroque, prevailing in the upper classes of the society, and represented by the King’s favourite, its main representant. Since 1986 the Community of Madrid has intervined in the building by means of a Plan of Action and a number of interventions and projects, drafted and managed by the author, who wrote a number of publications and studies.
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