Description
The architectural complex is composed of two perfectly differentiated parts: The Church and the College, the whole is of great sobriety and elegant proportions. Its foundation is due to Don Mendo Benavides, who commissioned the works to John and Alonso de Aranda and Salazar in 1642. He was raised to the rank of a collegiate by Pope Innocent XII.
The temple presents a simple, unique and wide-spaced Latin cross plant, with hornadine chapels, and with presbytery, on stands and chorus in high, also on stands. The main altar and chorus, as well as the sacristy and facade with contrasts in which the pétrea equestrian statue of Santiago Apostle stands out on the entrance door. The temple is characterized by a voluminous cimborrio, a slender tower and two similar design covers. The main feature is a relief of Santiago Matamoros in hornacina crowned with fronton. The courtyard has double gallery of half-point arches held by columns of Tuscan order. In a room annexed to the sacristy, liturgical ornaments, books from the Parish Register since its establishment from Trento, records of the school lobby, works and chorus books, rituals, objects of worship and other curiosities have been collected in a small museum.
