The Palacio Episcopal de Orihuela houses works by Velázquez

The Palacio Episcopal de Orihuela is a religious palace in the city of Orihuela, the capital of the diocese of the same name. It served as the residence of the bishop of Orihuela and was declared a National Monument by Decree of October 31, 1975. Today, it is the seat of the Museo Diocesano de Arte Sacro, which houses works by Velázquez and Nicolás de Bussy.

The site currently occupied by the palace was historically occupied by various buildings, including the Hospital del Corpus, which was built in the 15th century and owned by the Cabildo of the cathedral of Orihuela. In the 16th century, the hospital was moved to the Roig area and renamed San Bartolomé. By the 18th century, many canons had built their own houses, and the bishop of the city built a new palace on the land adjacent to the Santa Iglesia Catedral.

The building has two facades: a northern facade on Calle Mayor and a southern facade on the bank of the Rio Segura. The northern facade is divided into three sections. The first section is the Capilla del Loreto, which originally housed a wax factory for the Cofradía del Loreto. In the 18th century, a private chapel for the bishop was built on this site. This chapel is a square-shaped structure decorated with pilasters and composite capitals.

Velázquez’s The Temptation of St. Thomas Aquinas once hung in this chapel until it was moved to the cathedral of Orihuela. That large canvas, one of the few secure works by the painter preserved in Spain outside of the Museo del Prado, later returned to the palace. It is now exhibited in the Museo Diocesano de Arte Sacro.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons