The church of San Isidoro el Real is a church and parish church in the city of Oviedo, declared an Asset of Cultural Interest. It is a 16th century temple built on the site of an old Romanesque church.
It has its origins in the disappeared Romanesque church of San Isidoro, of which only the arch of the entrance doorway remains, installed since 1925 in the park of San Francisco in Oviedo. According to Ana María Herrero Montero, there is no information on the date from which there has been a church dedicated to San Isidoro in Oviedo, nor on the date of construction of the primitive Romanesque church which no longer exists. Documents from the 13th and 14th centuries indicate that the church of San Isidoro was the third church established in Oviedo after those of San Tirso and San Juan. The first document that gives evidence of its existence dates from 1217.
When it was founded, the present church was part of the now defunct college of the Jesuit order of San Matías. Founded by order of Magdalena de Ulloa, widow of Luis Méndez Quixada, in 1576, its construction was completed in 1587. The college was demolished in 1873 for the construction of the El Fontán market annexed to the church, leaving the church as the only witness to the former complex.
On 2 June 1645, the Archbishop of Granada, who had previously been Bishop of Oviedo, Martín Carrillo Alderete (who is buried in the church), signed the document founding the Colegio de San Matías. Archbishop Carrillo Alderete was embalmed and placed in an urn located in an arcosolium at the side of the presbytery.
The complex was built during the 17th century, being between 1646 and 1681 the period of greatest work. In 1681 the work was completed and the church was inaugurated.
The construction work on the church was directed by several architects, including the architect Francisco Menéndez Camina from Avilés. The church has a single nave with a Latin cross plan and a single exterior tower, although the initial project had foreseen two. The lack of budget, as happened with other churches in Oviedo, including Oviedo Cathedral, ended up leaving it as a church with a single tower. It is a Historic-Artistic Monument.
It is a Jesuit-style building with a nave of four bays with open side chapels that communicate with each other. The transept, which is not very prominent, is covered with a dome. The church was consecrated in 1681, after almost a century of building work. The initial project was probably drawn up by the architect Juan de Tolosa. According to professor Germán Ramallo Asensio, this authorship can be seen in the ground plan and the lower part of the façade. Other master builders, such as Menéndez Camina, were also involved in the building work. The Baroque style of the façade and most of the interior elevation are attributed to this artist. According to Ramallo Asensio, in the 18th century, the architect Francisco de la Riva completed the top of the tower and the reform of the chancel, which incorporated the chapel of the Dukes of El Parque, on the epistle side. The last phase of the building was carried out by Pedro Antonio Menéndez, who built the chapel of the School of Mary in 1745, which no longer exists.
On the façade, inside the corresponding niches, are the images of San Isidoro and above this, those of San Antonio de Padua and the Archangel San Gabriel.
Inside, in the side chapels, there are altarpieces dedicated to San Ramón Nonato, San Francisco Javier, La Pasión with the Virgen de los Dolores and the recumbent Christ, Nuestra Señora de las Nieves, El Calvario with the Cristo de la Buena Muerte and the Virgen de Lourdes. It has reliquaries dedicated to three saints, San Isidoro, its patron saint, located in the chapel of the souls; the reliquary of San Francisco Javier in the altarpiece dedicated to the Jesuit saint and the reliquary dedicated to San Juan Pablo II in the altarpiece of the Immaculate Conception. The relic of Saint John Paul II corresponds to a piece of the cassock stained with blood after the attack suffered by the Pope in 1981. The textile relic is enclosed in a Cross of the Angels, the emblem of the city. In addition to these reliquaries, four others, located in the altarpiece of Nuestra Señora de las Nieves, commemorate the four blessed baptised in the parish: the Claretian Juan Díaz Nosti (bone relic), the father of the Paulines José María Fernández Sánchez (bone relic), the Dominican Elíseo Izquierdo Palacios (bone relic) and the nun of the Adorers María Dolores de Jesús Crucificado (textile relic).
The image of Our Lady of Sorrows and the recumbent Christ are located in the altarpiece of the Passion, made by Antonio de Borja between 1725 and 1739. The images were carved by Luis Fernández de la Vega before 1675.
The Calvary Chapel or the Chapel of the Christ of the Good Death is made up of an altarpiece of a single body dated in the decade of the 30s of the 18th century. The life-size figures are framed by Solomonic columns and two stipes. The Christ, in Mannerist style, is surrounded by the figures of the Virgin, Saint John and The Magdalene, in a kneeling position embracing the cross. The figures are made of carved, stuccoed, gilded and polychrome wood. Their authorship probably comes from the workshop of Antonio Borja, who studied with the sculptor Luis Fernández de la Vega. The Jesuits founded the Congregation of the Good Death around 1600 in Venice and their aim was to unite their own death with that of Christ by encouraging the frequency of the sacraments.
Before the chapel of souls, on the right side of the church, there is a mausoleum dedicated to the fallen of Oviedo in the 1st Carlist War in 1836. For these events, the city of Oviedo received the honorary title of "Benemérita" and gave rise to the celebration of the traditional and well-known festival of Disarmament. The inscription on the mausoleum reads "Mortales restos de los nacionales D. Antonio Canella, capitán de Granaderos, D. Pedro de Aguirre, Gastador, D. Miguel Gana, Granadero, D. Francisco Quiñones, Nacional de Caballería" "A las víctimas del 19 de Octubre de 1836 el Ayuntamiento Constitucional dedicates this monument to the victims of 19 October 1836. Oviedo year 1841". In the chapel of souls, in addition to the aforementioned relic of San Isidoro, inserted in an 18th century shrine, there is an "excusing" image of the saint, used in the old processions and dated 1765.
The organ, Romanesque with Baroque aesthetics, was built by the Asturian Alonso Menéndez Forcinas in 1678 and donated to the church in 1779. In the 19th century it was modified according to the taste of the time. It has two manual keyboards and a pneumatic system. It is included in the list of Assets of Cultural Interest by the Principality of Asturias together with the organs of the Cathedral and the Church of Santa María la Real in Oviedo. The organ of San Isidoro is used in the concerts of the "Maestro de la Roza" Sacred Music Cycles.