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| Itinerary for a visit |
| Ground floor |
First floor |
Second floor |
Third floor |
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> Virtual visits of the Second floor: VR1 y VR2
The room of the Lady of Loyola where Iñigo was born. This is the room where Doña Marina de Licona gave birth in 1491 to her thirteenth and last child, Iñgo.
HERE HE WAS BORN
The silence that follows about her suggests that she died shortly afterwards. Doña Magdalena de Araoz, who married Iñigo’s elder brother and heir of the Loyola house in 1498, was second mother to him rather than his sister-in-law.
The next three rooms along the northern wall are those of the Lord of Loyola:
His armoury.
His bedroom.
His office.
The Old Oratory of the Tower-House is the most hallowed place of the house after the Chapel of the Conversion. It has a gothic altarpiece in the style of Queen Isabella’s reign.
In its upper part there is a Pietà: the Virgin Mary, holding the dead body of her Son in her bosom, is flanked by St John the Apostle and Mary Magdalene; behind, Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus. Who brought perfumes and buried it.
In the lower part the center is occupied by a precious Flemish picture of the Annunciation, by Jean Prévost (1460-1529), Queen Isabella’s gift, according to tradition, to her friend and lady-in-waiting Magdalena de Araoz, Iñigo’s sister-in-law. It is flanked by the statues of St Catherine of Alexandria and St Catherine of Siena.
Iñigo would repair to this oratory during his convalescence and the process of his conversion to pray and reflect, calling his family’s attention. Here in 1551, in St Ignatius’s lifetime, St Francis Borgia, former Duke of Gandía, who had just become a Jesuit, chose to celebrate his First Mass with the chasuble that is exhibited in the show-case on the wall. VR1
Dining room of the Tower-House. In the cupboard carved in a beam of the wall’s truss and originally destined to leave the dressings for the meals, there is a replica of the bowl with which Iñigo used to beg at Manresa in 1522 while he was experiencing the Spiritual Exercises.
The hall of honor of the Tower-House. This was the main room of the house, where important guests were entertained and special occasions celebrated. Two books are notably exhibited in the book-shelves: the Life of Christ by the Carthusian monk Ludolph of Saxony and the Legend of the Saints by Jacopo de Varazze. They are copies of the same edition as the ones that Iñigo held in his hands in 1521 and 1522 while convalescing in Loyola. He wanted to read books of chivalry, but there was none in the house. These books deserve close attention because they will be decisive in the conversion of Iñigo de Loyola. VR2 |
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| The room where Iñigo was born |
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| Altarpiece of the old oratory of the Tower House |
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| Dining room: larder of dressings |
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| Hall of honour of the Tower-House |
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| The books of a late conversion |
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