Basilica of Jesús de Medinaceli

This basilica in MadridThe church is the custodian and worships the venerated image of Our Father Jesus of Medinaceli, occupies the site which had previously housed the chapel of the palace of the Dukes of Medinaceli on the Paseo del Prado, the same space which, before the disentailment and secularisation of the 19th century, had been occupied by the church of the Disappeared convent of the Discalced Trinitarians of Our Lady of the Incarnation.

This was one of the three convents whose creation he promoted Philip III's favourite, Francisco Gómez de Sandoval, 1st Duke of LermaIn the early 17th century, he offered the Trinitarian, Capuchin and Dominican orders land on which to build a large suburban palace for his own pleasure and that of the court of the third Philip. By aggregating more than twenty plots of land, for the annexation of which he obtained from the council of La Villa the cession of the streets that separated them, the Valide succeeded in occupying a block bordered by the Carrera de San Jerónimo, the Plaza de las Cortes, the Paseo del Prado and the streets of Las Huertas, Jesús (formerly of the Trinitarios), Cervantes (formerly of Francos) and San Agustín (formerly of San José), on which to build a palace. the largest private palace complex in MadridIt has been said that it was more a village than a palace. The palace project was commissioned to Juan Gómez de Morawith a façade on the Carrera de San Jerónimo and communication with the Capuchin convent of San Antonio del Prado and, through a passageway high above Calle del Prado, with the Dominican monastery of Saint Catherine of Siena, convent built over the houses of the General Hospital acquired for this purpose by the Valide (C. Lopezosa Aparicio, 20, p. 458-67).

Teixeira's plan of 1656. The area in white marks the perimeter of the palace complex built by the first Duke Lerma which, three years after this plan was drawn up, was incorporated into the patrimony of the House of Medinaceli. The number XIX indicates the church of the convent of Trinitarios, the number XXI, the façade of the convent of San Antonio del Prado and the flyover leading to that of Catalina de Sena, marked with the number XXXVI. 

The convent of the Trinitarians was founded in 1606. by the reformer of this order and founder of its discalced branch, San Juan Bautista de la ConcepciónThe reformist project counted on the support of the protection, "to unfurled flags, let the whole world know it"by the Duke of Lermawho acted as its advocate before Philip III and donated the land to the new order - which was connected to the palace through the gardens - financed the construction of the convent and assumed its patronage (J. Pujana Ascorbeitia, Biography R.A.H.). From 1682 onwards, this convent became known as the convent of Jesús de Medinaceli for having hosted, since its arrival in Madrid, the "Holy Image, and Miraculous, of Jesus of Nazareth"The convent fell into the hands of the king of Meknes and was rescued by the religious of this order. At that time, the Trinitarian convent had been under the control of the patronage of the house of MedinaceliIn 1659, the wife of the 8th Duke of Medinaceli, Catalina Antonia de Aragón, succeeded to the house of Lerma. A few years later, in 1697, the venerated image of Jesus was incorporated, on the morning of Good Friday, into the processions of Holy Week in Madrid and, in 1710, its worship was institutionally organised with the founding of the Congregation of the Slaves of Jesus of NazarethThe Archicofradía Primaria, precedent of the current Archicofradía Primaria, with the IX Duke of Medinaceli, Luis Francisco de la Cerda, as its eldest brother.

Act of foundation of the Congregation of slaves of Jesús Nazareno in which the IX Duke of Medinaceli appears as Elder Brother. 

The short-lived Bonapartist suppression of the religious orders led to the transfer of the image to the Church of San Basilio, from where it returned in 1814, until the disentailment measures of Mendizabal in 1814. 1836, to induce them to leave again, this time for the parish church of San Sebastián. In 1844, the Duke of Medinaceli ceded the building of the primitive Trinitarian convent to the Conceptionist nuns of Caballero de Gracia and, the following year, requested to the Minister of Grace and Justice that the image of Jesus of Nazareth returned to its historic homeThis was carried out in 1846 by order of the Queen Governor. The collapse of the chapel's choir in 1851 forced the 13th Duke of Medinaceli to pay for the rebuilding of the temple, which would remain as the palace chapel and place of veneration of the image of Jesús de Medinaceli (E. Guevara, 2018). 

In the complex process of liquidating the will of the 15th Duke of Medinaceli, Luis Tomás Fernández de Córdoba - who died in 1873 - his widow, Ángela Pérez de Barradas, better known by the title she used during her widowhood, Duchess of Denia, decided in 1888 to place the will of the 15th Duke of Medinaceli, Luis Tomás Fernández de Córdoba, in the hands of the Duchess of Denia. sale of the entire palace complex created by the 1st Duke of LermaThe convent was divided into plots and demolished a year later. A few years earlier, in 1879, the 16th Duke of Medinaceli had died, leaving a posthumous son from his marriage to the Countess of Ofalia, Luis Jesús Fernández de Córdoba y Salabert, who was to become the 17th Duke of Medinaceli. Concerned about the fate of the chapel, the Countess of Ofalia, on behalf of her sonacquired it from the rest of the heirs, and ceded its use to the Capuchin orderThe new owner, who took possession of it on 7 July 1895. Five years earlier, it had no occupants, the conventual building of San Antonio del Prado had been demolished which, as we have seen, had once been occupied by the Capuchin order and whose assets were dispersed among the new church of Jesús de Medinaceli, the church of San Jerónimo el Real and the Capuchin convent in Granada. However, the most valuable work, the Annunciation, which Goya painted as the crowning work of the altarpiece commissioned in 1785 by the 12th Duke of Medinaceli from the royal architect Francisco Sabatini (J. Urrea Fernández, 2019, pp. 81-2), was part of the lot that went to the Duchess of Uceda in the aforementioned will, in whose lineage it remains.

Engraving made around 1860 of the façade of the church of the convent of San Antonio del Prado, which had been occupied by the Capuchin order since the time of the 1st Duke of Lerma, a church that was demolished in 1890. 

The temple remained standing until the year 1922 when it was demolished to build a larger one, given the growing number of faithful who came to worship the image of the Cristo de Medinaceli (Christ of Medinaceli). The construction of the new cruz latina plant factoryIt was designed by the architect Jesús Carrasco Muñoz Encina and lasted eight years, being solemnly consecrated on 21 November 1930 by the bishop of Madrid-Alcalá, Leopoldo Eijo y Garay. In the meantime, the image was moved to the convent that the Capuchin order had built in 1920 on a neighbouring plot of land (E. Guevara, 2018).

Process of demolition of the primitive church of Jesús de Medinaceli to build the present church. Ruiz Vernacci Archive, IPCE, Ministry of Culture and Sport. Although the file in this photo library dates the image to 1932, it must be a typographical error for 1922. 

In 1953, taking up a project designed in 1910, the architect Luis Gutiérrez Soto built a pantheon chapel in the Gospel aisle of the basilica, which was decorated with frescoes by Enrique Segura. for the eternal repose of the XVII Duke of Medinaceliwho died three years later, and his second wife (A. Sánchez González, (ed.), 2017 p.296). After the elevation to the rank of archdiocese of the bishopric of Madrid-Alcalá, its first archbishop erected this temple as a parish in 1966 and Pope Paul VI elevated it, seven years later, on 1 September 1966, to the rank of archdiocese. 1973, a minor basilica Cardinal Tarancón was Archbishop of Madrid.

Funerary project from 1910, partially taken over for the chapel-pantheon of the 17th Duke of Medinaceli and his second wife, built in 1953 in the Gospel nave of the Basilica of Jesús de Medinaceli.

In 1978, in the act of constitution of the Casa Ducal de Medinaceli FoundationIn the year 2000, its founder, Victoria Eugenia Fernández de Córdoba, XVIII Duchess of Medinaceli, donated the chapel to the institution she had created. By donating this property, the XVIII Duchess not only wished to pass on a material heritage, but above all, she wished to to ensure the secular role of transmitter of the devotion to the Christ that the Casa de Medinaceli had had since the origin of the invocation, convinced that contemporary individualism had dissolved the notion of personal obligation towards an abstract category such as the Casa, and could condemn a relationship, which had traditionally been institutional, to the fickleness of personal desires. For this reason, in order to ensure that the Foundation, which she had created, would enthusiastically take up this intangible obligation -one of the most important of the many historically linked to the House of Medinacelli - also promoted a reform of the statutes of the House of Medinacelli. Archicofradía Primaria de la Real e Ilustre Esclavitud de Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno (Primary Archconfraternity of the Royal and Illustrious Slavery of Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno)approved on 29 January 2013 by the Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Rouco Varela, by virtue of which the position of Hermano Mayor to the successive presidents of the Fundación Casa Ducal de Medinaceli.