The Compañía de Jesus College

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Religious architecture · Year: 1696

The Jesuit college occupied a large house from the second half of the 17th century, donated to it in 1696 by Inquisition leader Andrés Romero for educational development. The building has a main façade overlooking the street which over time took on its name, calle del Colegio (today known as Dr. Chil). It features an ancient doorway made of ashlar stone culminating in a triangular frontis split down the centre, where a flower ornament juts out. Two jugs adorn its side vertexes, while on the top the donator's coat of arms can be seen. It also shows off a small interlinked balcony, typical of the grand scale architecture of Las Palmas, and a set of eight stone barrel gargoyles.

Inside, the courtyard is especially interesting. It is square in shape and surrounded by an artistic set of columns of Corinthian capitals, supported by plinths. Under the entrance arch, a two-flight stone staircase leads up to the upper gallery. It is covered by a beautiful coffered ceiling, highlighted by linked prisms.

In the first decades of the 18th century, the Compañía de Jesús extended the centre's facilities, with the acquisition of several neighbouring houses. In one of them, next to the church, the main entrance to the College was located, with a remarkable stone doorway, crowned by a curved frontis, split down the middle to hold the Crown's stone carved coat of arms. The door leads on to a courtyard with stone arcades, held up by sober hexagonal pillars.

The Jesuit complex has a second frontis extending over the calle de los Canónigos (currently López Botas), parallel to the south with calle del Colegio. At this point is a noble courtyard, offering the character of a representative cloister of traditional Las Palmas architecture. The square courtyard has open galleries all round on the upper of two floors. The corridors have bannisters with parapets and wrought iron banisters, held up by eleven posts with grooved shafts on its lower section and topped by double baroque grouting shoes. At courtyard level there is access to different rooms via a series of lintled doorways. The stone staircase has an entrance under an arch. The galleries have 18 alternating posts holding up the ceilings and wooden cornices. Possibly around the 19th century a third level was added, which would have been eliminated by refurbishment at a later date. The entrance onto calle López Botas offers a split frontispiece, with a shell in the middle, a typical feature of the Compañía's construction. As well as the church, the Jesuit building's entrances present Baroque touches that are quiet rare in the rest of the city's architecture. 

We should just add one other building belonging to the Compañía in las Palmas: the one located to the east of the church, made up of a small two storey house whose façade features symmetrical recesses with two small interlocking balconies. This is the only residence currently owned by by the Compañía de Jesús out of what once was its educational and religious set of properties. Nevertheless, in the 20th century the Jesuits established a new educational centre at a new site within the Vegueta district. 

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