Description of the church.
A vast rustic door, decorated with the arms of the house, between these pediments of the Doric order, which looks out over one of the most beautiful streets of the city, gives entrance to a small courtyard, through which one approaches obliquely to the Monastery, and directly to the church, whose door, of the same order as the first, is raised by two large steps, surrounded by four columns eight feet high, supported by their pedestals, crowned with capitals, architraves, friezes, cornices and pediments, in the middle of which rises a cross of five feet, which seems to have for its crown a bull’s eye, surrounded by two large square windows, with cornices and pediments like the rest of the portal, from which one passes to the church. It is entirely of the Ionic order and recalls the Calvary being in the shape of a Cross, the nave of which runs along; the dome crowns it; the back of the Altar, the high end, and the side aisles, a little sunken, make it the crossing. This nave is of an extent of 46 feet of the King, raised by 34 widened by 24. Four large pedestals, very delicately worked, support the pilasters, which support the architrave, the friezes and cornices that reign all around the church, above which are placed the tears of the vault, which contains sharp ridges in the modern style. Four long days, two on each side, illuminate it perfectly without including those of the portal. The presbytery is bounded by a balustrade considerable for its material, form and figure, while the two ends project lengthwise into the nave, and also stop at the first two pilasters, near which there is an entrance on either side which answers to the two collateral altars; without the middle one which gives the right to the High Altar. The material and form of this one are of bastard marble turned with study and artifice, three feet high and decorated with cornices. Four double pilasters, adorned with their capitals, envelop the sanctuary which is crowned with a very high dome made in the Roman style illuminated by eight days which give a marvellous light. It is enriched with a Corinthian cornice, the trumeaux of these days are filled with the figures of the four Evangelists, and the background at the top is occupied by a picture of the Eternal Father, who with one hand supporting the world, stretches the other so naturally, that to see it one would say that He is pointing with his finger, and wants to make all who contemplate him understand, that this church is the place of his loves and his complaisances. This picture is made in a round of three feet in diameter, with a large work painted in foliage of azure and golden yellow, from which come out in the form of crosses large Moorish women, some of whom throw out flames, others large bouquets of flowers, in the absence or edge of which are four Cherubim, who support large festoons of flowers and fruits, which are all held together by great crimson and blue ribbons, with which all the emptiness is
pleasantly filled.
The crossing of the Cross, which the church represents, carries the two arms on both sides of the High Altar: they are vaulted in the shape of a shell, as well as the upper end of the said Cross, which is made by the Sacristy of which we will speak later. On the side of the Gospel is the Chapel of the Visitation near the choir grille, which pierces a half-round oval in the interior. It is surmounted by another gate, of a shape and size approaching this one for the infirmary. On the side of the Epistle is the Chapel of St. Francis de Sales, illuminated by a light similar to those of the nave. In the middle of these two chapels appears eminently and majestically the High Altar, a little deeper between the two most eminent pilasters of the dome which serves as a canopy or marvellously dazzling crown. It is enhanced by four very wide steps, which surround it advantageously: they are as well as the ceiling, of a very rare and beautiful stone, made similar to jasper marble, by the work and sweat of the Nuns, who by their care and artifice have almost given it its naturalness, as well as to the pedestals, pediments, cornices, and to the rest of an altar table, which is of the Corinthian order, and worked with so much skill, subtlety, and success that it may be said with truth that it is a masterpiece, in which art has exhausted itself to make it perfect.
Its clearance gives the freedom to go around it, by means of the porticoes that give entrance on either side to the Sacristy, in favor of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, who give or forbid the entrance; and it is supported and enriched by four large columns of black marble, eight feet seven inches high, supported by their bases and crowned with their capitals. Nothing is cleaner and more modest than the Sacristy which occupies the entire back of the Altar; it takes a rather high and considerable light, at the end of a pleasant rood screen which uncovers the whole church over the porticoes and which, although it is only half lengthened, still allows it to take a good part in great days such as those of the nave with which it is illuminated.
This, roughly, is the shape of this beautiful church, which receives a great deal of pleasure from a flesh-coloured colour, of which all the cornices, both of the dome and of the nave, the pilasters, the capitals, friezes and architraves as well as the circumference of the great door of the church, the windows, the two grilles, the arcades and frames of the paintings of the dome with the tear-offs are pleasantly covered; the rest being very well whitened, so true is it that everything attracts the eyes and admiration of everyone. Now let’s come to the decoration.