San Pablo is a church and former convent in Córdoba. The present church and defunct convent were built on a space that always harbored large buildings for its location at the door of the city along one of the main access roads. A Roman Circus predated a Muslim palace before Almohad Christians built a Dominican convent.
The church has Baroque features made in marble dating to 1708. The main facade features the Mannerist style of the 16th century. The interior consists of three naves divided by pillars covered with coffered Mudéjar ornamentation. There are three apses, circular on the inside and rectangular on the outside, with a quarter-sphere dome, and central pentagonal vault. The tower is located at the foot of the church and is of stone, upon which stands the wooden bell tower.
In the nave of the Gospel, there is a pointed flaring arch, with caliphal capitals, leading into San Pablo Street. In the nave of the Epistle, there is an old door of Gothic-Mudejar style. Among the preserved chapels is the Chapel of the Madonna del Rosario, built in the 15th century and renovated in 1758, which is an example of Baroque Cordoba. Remains of the cloister of the convent can be seen embedded in the passage that leads to the Ministry of Culture on Capitulares Street. The chapter house, designed by Hernán Ruiz II, was possibly unfinished for lack of funds. Restoration and refurbishment of the building occurred in 2008 as part of an earmark for the cultural area of the city. One of the most important sculptures of Easter Cordoba, Our Lady of Sorrows, is by Juan de Mesa and dates to 1627.
In the Jardines de Orive are the grounds of the former convent garden. The site's gardens are mentioned as early as 1409.
References:Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.
The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).