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26-408: The legislation was promulgated by Juan Álvarez Mendizábal , who was briefly prime minister under Queen regent Maria Christina during the reign of the two-year-old Queen Isabel II of Spain . The aims of the legislation were varied. Some of its impulses were fostered by the anticlerical liberal factions engaged in a civil war with Carlist and other reactionary forces. The government wished to use

52-473: A cour d'honneur on the approaching side, and formal gardens, with a main axis centred on the palace, that were surrounded by woodland in which further hidden garden features were disposed. Like Versailles, La Granja began as a retreat from the court but became a centre of royal government. For the architect, Philip began with an unpretentious project by the Spanish architect Teodoro Ardemans , incorporating

78-477: A granja (farm) alongside the lodge and shrine. The site was purchased from the monks in 1719 by King Philip V , after his nearby summer Palace of Valsain burned to a shell. He was the first Spanish king from the French Bourbon dynasty . Beginning in 1721, Philip began building a new palace and gardens modeled on Versailles , built by his grandfather, Louis XIV of France . Like Versailles it embraced

104-709: A Cádiz masonic lodge . During the Trienio liberal Mendizábal renounced to the Public Administration, although he had actively participated in the revolts against absolutism . When Ferdinand VII renounced the Constitution of 1812 and restored his absolute power in 1823, Mendizábal and many other revolutionary liberals went into exile: in the United Kingdom he opened a trade business. In 1835, under José María Queipo de Llano 's presidency, he

130-602: A Museum of Flemish tapestries . Extending over 1,500 acres (6.1 km ), the gardens around the palace are one of the best examples of 18th-century European garden design in the Jardin à la française style in Spain. The French designer from the official French royal offices of Robert de Cotte was René Carlier, who used the natural slope of the site in the palace grounds design, for enhancing axial visual perspectives, and to provide sufficient head for water to shoot out/up from

156-424: A break with his Habsburg predecessors. The frescoes by Giambattista Tiepolo , completed by Francisco Bayeu , were badly damaged in a fire of 1918. Philip's successor Ferdinand VI bequeathed the royal site of San Ildefonso, with all it contained, to his father's second wife, Elisabeth Farnese , who was effectively forced to live there, well away from Madrid politics, for the duration of his reign. She maintained

182-410: A chapel centred on one facade, which was enlarged in a second phase, ca 1728-34 under Andrea Procaccini and Sempronio Subisati, who provided the courtyards in the flanks, then given its definitive character by Filippo Juvarra , who was brought from Turin, based on recommendations in the circle of Philip's second queen, Elizabeth Farnese of Parma, and his assistant, Giovanni Battista Sacchetti. When

208-531: A considerable court there. At her death in 1766, it reverted to the Crown in the person of her son Charles III . For the next one hundred and twenty years, La Granja was the court's main summer palace, and many royal weddings and burials, state treaties, and political events took place within its walls. However, from the 1880's the court preferred to sojourn at the seaside palaces in the Basque Country and

234-566: A nobler material, or lacquered over white oxidised lead to imitate marble. A group of richly sculptural vases have been attributed to designs by the "dazzling maverick" Gilles-Marie Oppenord , which were probably forwarded through the offices of Robert de Cotte, overseeing French royal building projects as intendant des Bâtiments du Roi . Bruno Pons noted in the sculptural vases "an almost excessively brilliant style, quite distinct from French royal taste and showing an undeniably superior understanding of ornament ". The "Baths of Diana" fountain

260-541: A radical government and the restoration of the Spanish Constitution of 1812 . Mendizábal was appointed Minister of Finance and a series of revolutionary measures were taken: the abolition of tithe and señoríos , freedom of the press, confiscation of the Church properties). In 1837 a more moderate government was elected. Mendizábal was again appointed Minister of Finance in 1843 but had to go in exile again when

286-420: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Juan %C3%81lvarez Mendiz%C3%A1bal Juan Álvarez Mendizábal (born Juan Álvarez Méndez ; 25 February 1790 – 3 November 1853) was a Spanish economist and politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 25 September 1835 to 15 May 1836. He was born to Rafael Álvarez Montañés, a cloth merchant, and Margarita Méndez, of converso origin. He

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312-436: Is the focal point of several garden alleés , and was made from lead and then painted to look like bronze and marble. It and its marble statues form some of the most impressive and well conserved architecture from this period in Spain. Frémin, Thierry, and Jacques Bousseau led a team of sculptors who between 1720 and 1745 created this stunning feature, brought to life by the fountains' spectacular water displays. However, regarding

338-496: The Province of Segovia in central Spain . It became the summer residence of the kings of Spain from the 1720s during the reign of King Philip V . The palace is in a restrained Baroque style , surrounded by extensive gardens in the formal Jardin à la française style with sculptural fountains. It is now open to the public as a museum. The area was a favourite hunting grounds for many Castilian kings, due to its location on

364-452: The King decided to abdicate in 1724, his intention was to retire to La Granja. Unfortunately Philip's heir, King Louis I , died that same year, and Philip had to return to the throne. Consequently, a place designed for leisure and quiet retreat thus became an important meeting place for the King, his ministers and the court. The town of San Ildefonso expanded to provide housing and services to

390-475: The courtiers who wanted a place near the king's favourite residence. Military barracks, a collegiate church (1721–1724, built to designs of Teodoro Ardemans , and dedicated to the Holy Trinity, 22 December 1723), and even a royal glass factory (1728) were built to provide for the palace. The glass factory, which had some initial successes from 1720 at Nuevo Baztan in the province of Madrid, was moved under

416-402: The direction of its Catalan foreman, Ventura Sit, to San Ildefonso, where supplies of timber were plentiful, and a royal patron was near. The best glass of Venetian type produced in the works dates from the last quarter of the 18th century. As La Granja de San Ildefonso, the glassworks continue today as a subsidiary of Saint Gobain. The church was selected as his burial site by Philip, marking

442-460: The elaborate "Baths of Diana", the chronically depressed Philip remarked, "It has cost me three millions and amused me three minutes." The original waterworks and piping are still functional. They rely purely on gravity to project water up the fountain jets, including to the 40 metres (130 ft) height of the "Fame" fountain. A reservoir, El Mar (the Sea), lies secluded at the highest point of

468-573: The forested northern slopes of the Sierra de Guadarrama . In the 15th century, Henry IV of Castile built the first hunting lodge on the site, along with a small shrine dedicated to Saint Ildephonsus of Toledo , which gave this place its first name. Isabella I of Castile granted both buildings to the monks of the Santa Maria del Parral monastery in Segovia, who built an almshouse and developed

494-634: The immediate end to the Carlist war and the elimination of the public debt . The Liberal movement, the Queen Regent and Mendizábal were supported by the new owners of the confiscated properties, though the measures only benefited the big land tycoons. The impossibility of ending the Carlist revolts forced Mendizábal's resignation in 1836. A few months later a revolt in La Granja made the Queen accept

520-401: The land to encourage the enterprises of small-land owning middle class , since much of the land was thought of as underused by monastic orders . The government, which refused to compensate the church for the properties, saw this as a source of income. Finally, wealthy noble and other families took advantage of the legislation to increase their holdings. Ultimately, the desamortización led to

546-500: The moderates came back to power. In 1847, he came back to Spain and occupied a seat in the Cortes until his death in 1853. La Granja (palace) The Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso (Spanish: Palacio Real de La Granja de San Ildefonso ), known as La Granja , is an early 18th-century palace in the small town of San Ildefonso , located in the hills near Segovia and 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Madrid , within

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572-563: The royal site became rarely used. In 1918 a major fire damaged the palace and although the damage was repaired much of the interior decoration and contents were lost. Currently the royal site is part the Patrimonio Nacional of Spain, which holds and maintains many of the Crown's lands and palaces. It is a popular tourist attraction, with gardens, and interiors displaying rooms with Carrara marble , Japanese lacquerware , and crystal chandeliers; portraits and other paintings; and

598-601: The twenty-six sculptural fountains in the formal gardens and landscape park . Sculptors arrived from Paris to execute designs on the site. They included: René Frémin (1672–1744, at La Granja until 1738), to whom the execution of many vases and sculptures was attributed in 18th-century inventories; Jean Thierry; and others who are little more than names in archival references. All of the fountains represent themes from classical mythology , including Greek deities , allegories and scenes from myths . They are cast in lead to prevent corrosion, and painted over to simulate bronze,

624-586: The vacating of most of the ancient monasteries in Spain, which had been occupied by the various convent orders for centuries. Some of the expropriations were reversed in subsequent decades, as happened at Santo Domingo de Silos , but these re-establishments were relatively few. Some of the secularised monasteries are in a reasonably good state of preservation, for example the Valldemossa Charterhouse ; others are ruined, such as San Pedro de Arlanza . This Spanish history –related article

650-626: Was appointed Minister of the Treasury. On 14 September he succeeded Queipo de Llano, keeping the Treasury portfolio during a delicate economic situation due to the First Carlist War 's military expenses. Queen Regent Maria Christina thought a liberal prime minister would hold the rebellions. Mendizábal's political program included the Desamortización Eclesiástica (" Ecclesiastical Confiscations of Mendizábal "),

676-483: Was given training in banking, first working in a bank and then in the military administration during the Peninsular War . In 1820, he was appointed military supplier of the troops that Ferdinand VII had sent to America to suppress the revolts. Taking advantage of this situation he financed Rafael del Riego 's military uprising. At the time of the coup he became a Freemason as a member of "Taller Sublime",

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