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> Virtual visit
First, the twin imperial staircases with which Master Martín de Zaldúa replaced two of the courtyards of the original plan towards the end of the 17th century. Their upper landings are like town squares adorned with the statues of the four first canonized Jesuit Saints (in the southern wing), and those of four Popes with a special relation with the Society (in the northern wing).
The Imperial Staircase of the Southern Wing, the “Staircase of the Saints”, and that of the Northern Wing, the “Staircase of the Popes”.
Visitors of the Tower-House coming out of the Chapel of the Conversion go down the imperial staircase, called the Staircase of the Saints today (Virtual visit). It is to be noted that both the wings of the Shrine have at their center a multiple staircase that was called “imperial” at the time of its construction.
The imperial staircase of the southern wing was designed by Master Martín de Zaldúa in the year 1693 to replace one of the courtyards planned by Carlo Fontana for each of the wings.
Neither the project and the execution of this staircase were free from polemics. Zaldúa’s design was put to execution immediately. But as soon as the Superior of Loyola, Fr Andrés de Zúpide, realized that the new staircase touched the Holy House with its arches and vaults against the previously established principle that it should be left untouched, he ordered the suspension of the work.
Seven years later, in 1702, Zaldúa submitted a “memorandum” in defense of his project presenting it as a monumental approach to the Chapel of the Conversion. This argument won the day. It convinced the Provincial of Castile, Fr Salvador de Ribadeo (1702), and the General, Fr Tirso González (1687-1705). Work was resumed and proceeded even during the general interruption decided in 1704 during the War f Secession (1701.1714).
In this staircase four side flights of stairs alternate with two central ones. The large final landing is sheltered at the sides by groin vaults and at the center by a rather flat dome with no other decoration but a splendid fleuron of gilded wood recently restored (1999). The landing itself, within view of the access to the Chapel of the Conversion, is dominated by the doors and balconies that surround it and make it into a kind of public square. Four pedestals rise on its corners. (Virtual visit ).
In 1854, when the statues of the first Jesuits Saints were placed on these four pedestals, the staircase of the southern wing began to be called the staircase of the Saints. These Saints are: St Ignatius, St Francis Xavier, St Aloysius Gonzaga and St Stanislaus Kostka. The statues of the first two came from Rome; those of St Aloysius and St Stanislaus are the work of Luis Salvador Carmona.
The twin staircase of the Popes that leads to the Archives and Libraries in the northern wing is alike. The statues are of Popes:
- Paul III (1534-1549), who first approved the Society;
- Clement XIII (1758-1769), who “strenuously defended the Society of Jesus from the attacks of impious men";
- Pius VII (1800-1823), who restored the Society worldwide in 1814;
- and Leo XIII (1878-1903), the reigning Pontiff when this northern wing was completed (1885-1888) and who in 1886 confirmed the Jesuit Institute and its privileges.
These four statues were molded by Fr Victoriano Salmón (Madrid 1839 – Almería 1910) and executed in varnished wood imitating bronze by F. Font and P. |
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| The Saint's staircase |
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| The Pope's staircase |
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