ROYAL CHAPEL OF OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY

The layout of the church was completed at the end of the 16th century with the addition of the chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary, the second side chapel on the Epistle. It houses the oldest altarpiece in the church, a splendid Baroque-style ornamental altarpiece, made by Andrés del Rosario and his son Lorenzo de Campos in 1660. Its design, clearly mannerist, seems to derive from Palladio’s treatise on architecture; although in its lines and decoration it is also possible to notice the influence of the main doorway of the Parroquia Matriz de El Salvador of this city, dating from 1585. In the attic presides a painting of God the Father that was placed between 1664 and 1666. The beautifully dressed image of Our Lady of the Rosary, the work of the sculptor Fernando Estévez from 1833, which replaced an earlier one, is worshipped here.