The Dominican priory of La Guardia de Jaén (), known from its dedication as the Convent of Santa María Magdalena de la Cruz (), was founded for a community of friars of the Dominican Order (otherwise the Order of Preachers) in the town of La Guardia de Jaén in the province of Jaén in Andalusia, Spain. Construction at the current location began around 1539. The priory was shut down and confiscated during the Trienio Liberal (1820–1823), and the buildings are now mostly ruined. The church however remains in use as the present Church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (). At first Gothic in style, its layout initially followed a design by Domingo de Tolosa. It was later extensively revised by Andrés de Vandelvira, who imprinted his personal Renaissance stamp on the church and the cloister loggia.

Although the contract signed by Vandelvira set an execution period of two and a half years, his work actually took 26 years, which led to a new commission for , who undertook the construction of the vaulted ceiling over the choir, the enclosure of the west end and the completion of the loggia (or gallery) of the cloister with the addition of a fountain dedicated to Mary Magdalene, the patron saint of the priory. This fountain is dated 1577, which is considered to be the end of this last construction period, and indeed of all construction on the convent.

After the priory was suppressed, the conventual buildings were partly converted for use for commercial purposes and partly abandoned and allowed to fall into ruin. The church was in use as the parish church by about 1850, the previous parish church having been reduced to ruins by the French in 1812.La Vida Religiosa en la Villa de la Guardia (Jaén) durante la época del Marquesado (siglos XVI-XIX), a través de sus documentos (I). La Iglesia Mayor de Santa María. El Clero de la Parroquia. Ángel Viedma Guzmán, 2014. pdf In more recent years, those conventual buildings which had not fallen derelict underwent further, more drastic conversion for industrial use by the San Sebastián Olive Oil Cooperative. After they left in 2007, the buildings suffered further from looting and partial collapse.

The convent of Santa María Magdalena is an important heritage site in La Guardia de Jaén and one of the greatest examples of the architecture of the master builder Andrés de Vandelvira, who gave the church an iconographic scheme of great value, and the only example known in his production of an octagonal chancel. It was both religious architecture and at the same time a funerary pantheon for his patrons, the lords of La Guardia. Authors such as have described the building as one of his most important works: [...] where Vandelvira renovated the church, creating a presbytery of great classical beauty and with certain traditional touches in the way of arranging the vaulting. The patio or cloister of this convent has an Andalusian elegance.Chueca Goitia, Fernando (2001): Historia de la arquitectura española. Volume II, p. 131. Ávila: Fundación Cultural Santa Teresa.

Both the parish church and the convent were declared an Asset of Cultural Interest, Monument category, by Decree 507/1975, of 20 February 1975.(BOE no. 69, of March 21, 1975, page 5831

Artistic description The church is the best-preserved of the buildings of the former priory. The rest are in an advanced state of ruin or have been hidden by the renovations of the last century, when the premises were occupied by an olive oil mill, as mentioned. After the ruin of the parish church of Santa María in the castle grounds, the priory church was eventually converted into the parish church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción.

Decoratively, the church is in a pure classicist style, typical of the Vandelvira of the second half of the 16th century, with a Latin cross plan and a single nave, respecting the preferred forms of the Dominican Order. The chancel, dated 1556, is especially striking.

Over the transept the vault with tracery is decorated in its upper part by coffers, containing scenes of the Passion, and is open to the outside through a slender roof lantern, supported at its corners by four typically Vandelvirian semi-pillars, highlighting the detail of the three-angled corners as an elegant transition to the ceiling tracery. The lantern supports its dome on six free columns crowned with Tuscan capitals. To raise the height, there are bases decorated with various motifs: mirrors, the coat of arms of the Dominican Order and the arms of Messía and Fonseca.

In the corners of the ceiling of the main chapel are two squinches with shell alcoves, in which the arms of the priory's patrons Rodrigo Messía and Mayor de Fonseca are depicted again, flanked by angels. Above them are two pairs of virtues: Strength and Justice over the shield of Messía, and Faith and Charity over that of Fonseca. Covering the eastern end of the chancel is a quarter-spherical vault in which an extensive iconographic scheme is represented in individual coffers, including virgin saints, martyrs of antiquity, prophets and other characters from the Old Testament, the Fathers of the Latin Church and the saints of the Order.Gila and Ruiz, 1984 Presiding over the altar is a beautiful fresco of Saint Dominic, the order's founder, and above it the arms of the Dominican Order flanked by two greyhounds carrying torches in their jaws, the emblems of Saint Dominic.

At the west end of the church is a choir-loft under a three-ring vault, in the center of which is framed a relief of the Our Lady of the Rosary. Architecturally, it is evident that this vault is later than Vandelvira, as the texts attest. The wall of the west end is also thinner than the others. On the other side of it, in the outer corner opposite the bell tower some traces remain of a previous structure (possibly a compass or an unfinished construction), also leaving exposed to the open air the arches that support the aforementioned vault. These works lead to church's unfinished west front, which is abruptly closed off by means of a formwork wall.

Finally, it is worth mentioning the artesonado ceiling, which survives in the sacristy but was looted from the rest of the bays, where the 16th-century brackets and ceramic plaques have disappeared (the latter were reinstated in the plinth of the main altar). An inscription on one of the brackets in the sacristy shows the date 1547.

History

Messía family, patrons of the project In the Plaza de Isabel II is a Renaissance fountain with five bronze spouts, the inscription on which reads: ESTA OBRA M[ANDÓ] FAZER EL ILL[USTRÍSI]MO SEÑOR EL MARQUÉS DON GONÇALO MESSIA CARRILLO MI SEÑOR AÑO D[E] 1566 ("This work was ordered to be made by the most illustrious lord the Marquis Don GONÇALO MESSÍA CARRILLO in the year of Our Lord 1566"). Above it on a cartouche are two lions rampant supporting a now-missing shield. These two lions and the greyhounds that protect the shield of the Dominican Order in the church are connected through the Messía family,The name of this noble lineage can be written n various ways, generally as Messía or Mexía, and its Castilianised form, Mejía. This article uses the commonest transcription, based on published studies such as Nicás Moreno's Heráldica y genealogía en el Reino de Jaén (1997). lords of La Guardia.

Images of the Renaissance fountain in the Plaza de Isabel II in La Guardia in Jaén.

The history of this family goes back to 1374 when, at the end of the Castilian Civil War, the new monarch Henry II of Castile seized possession of La Guardia from Lope Díaz de Baeza (Lope Díaz (or Ruíz) de Baeza y Haro, descendant of the house of Ruíz de Baeza y Haro 1340.04.13 (1378). Jaén Will and fundación de mayorazgo of don Lope Ruiz de Baeza, lord of La Guardia. Copy of the same letter as the previous l. D-11, fo 7 to 12. Inventory number 20268: Documento.) for his support of Pedro I "El Cruel". Ruiz or Ruy González Messía, now lord of the city, initiated a renovation, which began in the same citadel that he transformed into his palace.Ortega Bueno, 1997, p.1131

1566, the date inscribed on the fountain, was another milestone in the history of the Messía family, the moment when Felipe II granted La Guardia the title of a marquisate when Gonzalo Messía Carrillo, Knight of the Order of Santiago, was named Marquis of La Guardia.

The fountain is located in a symbolic place, establishing a square halfway between the old town and the new Dominican convent to the northeast, where construction took place for more than 30 years.

Fray Domingo de Valtanás

The history of the building began in 1530, when Fray Domingo de Valtanás decided to found a Dominican convent in the city. He was a preacher of the Order and also a relative of the lords of La Guardia who, in exchange for burial within the walls of the future priory church, from then on became the patrons and promoters of this work.

When work began on the residence of the lords, the castle-palace, they called the master mason of Jaén, Juan Rodríguez de Requena, the documentary evidence of whom begins in 1538, according to the date of a letter of payment. The texts indicate that he could not read, but Juan Rodríguez was the material executor of much of the construction on the priory, serving as the essential link that united the various projects and architects who signed his plan.

Only one year after this letter of payment to Rodríguez de Requena, the work was suspended, and then transferred to a peripheral area far from the castle, near the fertile plains of the river, where a large orchard could be planted, while the friars remained in the residence of the lord.

Transfer and start of work In 1542, the Dominicans, under the supervision and approval of the Messías, commissioned the project through a public tender, awarding it on June 20 to Domingo de Tolosa. Although he was in charge of the paperwork, the execution was subcontracted to Juan Rodríguez as director, and Francisco del Castillo "El Viejo" working for him, since De Tolosa needed to take charge of the works on the church of Huelma.

The tender set the execution period at three years, and construction on the church was to be completed in this period. Tolosa's plan, which clearly belonged to the Gothic taste that still remained in the early 16th century, consisted of:Lázaro, 1988:124

Like the church in Huelma, a flat chancel covered with a half-barrel vault with coffers for iconography Two vaulted chapels with coffers A transept covered with a traceried vault also similar to that of the first section of the church of Huelma (in which he used a stellar vault) A final vault at the west end similar to the previous one but without the side chapels

Once the designs had been drawn up, the friars paid the first instalment to Tolosa and the work began. However, on December 11 of the same year, 1542, the project was suddenly entrusted to Andrés de Vandelvira for no explicit reason. Some authors have suggested the possible death of Domingo de Tolosa as the reason. Francisco del Castillo "El Viejo" also abandoned the work, since with the death of Tolosa the contract was dissolved, and he had to attend to the work on the parish church of Huelma (where he would direct the works alone from then on), and on the town hall of Jaén.

After the death of Domingo de Tolosa, the Dominicans declared themselves owners of the project, having made a first payment and with the intention of continuing with its construction. However, this time the aesthetic tastes of their patrons were decisive.

Andrés de Vandelvira's project