Church of Santa María la Blanca

Description

The Church of Santa María la Blanca (Villalcázar de Sirga, Palencia) began to be built at the end of the 12th century as the seat of a Templar commandery. In its early years it was closely linked to the monarchs Alfonso X the Wise and Sancho IV. Later, in the 14th century, the building was ceded to Rodrigo Rodríguez de Girón and the Manrique family. Juan de Echeverri y Rovere gave the church to the bishopric of Palencia in 1664. A collapse in 1888 affected the western part of the church, which caused the loss of the Puerta del Angel. The building has a floor plan with three naves separated by cruciform pillars and has five apses at the chevet. In its interior the sepulchers of the infante Felipe de Castilla, of Inés de Guevara and of Juan de Pereira are conserved. There are numerous textile fragments from the tomb of the prince Felipe that are preserved scattered in museums and collections. See, in this regard, the fragments in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Victoria & Albert Museum (London), the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam) or the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts (Belgium).