In the case of El Salvador de Úbeda, and previously in the Royal Chapel of Granada, the approach from the foundations is essentially funerary. Don Francisco de los Cobos and his wife, Mrs. María de Mendoza, in an absolutely novel way conceive for their burial and that of their descendants an exempt building, which alone guarantees the importance and the high social and economic rank achieved by Cobos, a Second-rank nobleman from Ubeta who came to hold, after a meteoric career, the most trusted administrative positions in the Court of Emperor Charles V.

To carry out such an important project in his hometown, Cobos obtained from Pope Paul III, on February 2, 1535, a bull to erect a temple-pantheon to which the chaplaincies and privileges granted in 1525 were transferred to build in the parish of Santo Tomás a funerary chapel, located very close to the family house-palace. As in other building projects, the person in charge of carrying out the plan was Dean Ortega. The chosen place was a large plot near the Hospital de los Honorados Viejos del Salvador and the aforementioned family palace, sumptuously renovated and expanded. After acquiring various lots from individuals and from the said Hospital, Cobos arranged with the famous architect from Burgos, Diego de Siloé, busy in Granada in the works of the Cathedral, his ambitious project. Siloé undertook, among other things, to give the conditions and drawing of the plant. In 1536 the works were finished by Andrés de Vandelvira and Alonso Ruiz, who had to follow at all times the instructions drawn up by Siloé, published by Don Manuel Gómez Moreno.

In 1539 Cobos ordered to suspend the works, being advised by his relative, the also royal secretary Juan Vázquez de Molina, the convenience of transferring the construction of the sacred chapel to his dominion of Sabiote. In 1540 they resumed, being again in front of them Andrés de Vandelvira and Alonso Ruiz. In this second contract other works are required such as the main portal, which must follow the model drawn up by Siloé in the Forgiveness of the Granada Cathedral, and the lateral ones and also Vandelvira is commissioned to design a new sacristy, piece essential within the whole of the sacred chapel.

The plant consists of a nave with late-Gothic vaults with cased chapels and a main chapel in the shape of a rotunda with coffered ceilings flanked by two beautiful vaults, one under the tower, the other giving access to the sacristy. This articulation had already been experienced by León Battista Alberti for the also funerary temple of Sigismund Malatesta in the Italian city of Rimini. Ultimately, the circle refers us to the Pantheon in Rome and the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the nave, for its part, responds to the demands of worship. In the sacristy, which is accessed through a beautiful angled door, Vandelvira shows his extraordinary knowledge, as in the rest of his works, on the technique of stone cutting; Its rectangular floor plan is divided into three modules covered with vaulted vaults (very Vandelvian), with large arches on the walls, like niches, to house the drawers, framed by Sibyls and Prophets of excellent size, due to the French sculptor Esteban Jamete.

The great façade, which presides over the eastern side of the monumental Plaza de Santa María, is structured like a great triumphal arch; The upper one shows us the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor, a motif also repeated in the main altarpiece, the lower one - due to the hand of Esteban Jamete - is more complete and deep and in it are inserted, among many other motifs, scenes both from the Old Testament (Fall of the Manna and the Veneration of the Bronze Serpent) and from the pagan world (Planets, from the intrados of the great central arch), but there is also an abundant Plateresque carving.

Flanking this great portal are two buttresses of Gothic tradition, including two of the seven works of Hercules. (The fight against the centaurs and the bulls of Gerión). To the sides of them two tribunes are opened and under them on bases the shields of Don Francisco de los Cobos and Doña María de Mendoza supported by warriors and matrons, respectively. At the ends there are two graceful circular turrets adorned with Plateresque elements. The emblems of the founders are inserted repeatedly, both inside and outside. The side covers are due to Andrés de Vandelvira; the southern one, like an altarpiece, with scenes from the Old and New Testaments; the south, with delicate plateresque work and with the typical Vandelvian composition of a triumphal arch, is dedicated to Santiago, patron saint of Spain.

A monumental bell tower, located on the Epistle side, completes this superb ensemble with a high symbolic value, present both in architecture and decoration. Ultimately everything was thought to eternalize its founders. Andrés de Vandelvira, somewhat subject at first to Diego de Siloé's instructions, appears much more personal to us as a result of the second contract of 1540, his great creative capacity emerging in the wonderful sacristy with its entrance door, but also in many other architectural elements.

In El Salvador, the yearnings for immortality sought by his mentor, Francisco de los Cobos, have been combined with the architectural and sculptural quality promoted by great Renaissance artists: Diego de Siloé, Andrés de Vandelvira and Esteban Jamete. The church was consecrated in 1559. An inscription on one of the pillars of the nave recalls this: “He consecrated this Sacred Church, the Rt. Don Diego Tavera, of good memory, bishop of Jaén. Sunday, October 8, 1539. Presiding in the chair of San Pedro, Pío the fourth and Reigning in Spain Felipe II of this name ”.

OTHER NON-ARCHITECTURAL ARTISTIC MANIFESTATIONS

Don Francisco de los Cobos and his wife, Dª. María de Mendoza, endowed with a rich movable heritage, increased with their descendants the Marquis of Camarasa, to the Sacred Chapel. Little has come of that valuable treasure from the last heirs of the Camarasa. Of the abundant goldsmiths still guarded in the sacristy, we highlight a late-Gothic gilded silver chalice from the late 15th century that, according to tradition, was given by Emperor Charles V to Cobos, a Venetian-style reliquary casket (15th century) and the clump and cannon of a processional cross (disappeared), the work of the Toledo silversmith Francisco Martínez, carved in 1542; Also in it is the reliquary bust of Santa Aurelia (16th century), carved in polychrome wood, and a Christ in ivory (17th century).

From an excellent pictorial collection treasured by Cobos, nothing remains in the Chapel, because even the pieces not destroyed in 1936 such as the Piedad (16th century), by Sebastián del Piombo, a Calvary (16th century) and a penitent Magdalena are currently deposited in the House of Pilatos. To alleviate these important losses, the Medinaceli Foundation has hung a replica of the aforementioned Pieta in one of the chapels of the nave. Only certain remains could be saved of the famous San Juanito, a sculpture sculpted in Carrara marble, which according to traditional and recent historiography is attributed to the great Miguel Angel. In 1563, the image was deposited in the castle of Sabiote, manor of Cobos.

The great altarpiece of the Main Altar, partially destroyed in 1936, represents -under an 18th-century coat-, the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor, traditionally attributed to Alonso de Berruguete; the set was restored by the sculptor José Luis Vassallo.

In the four niches that flank the altarpiece the Evangelists are preserved, carved around 1634 by the sculptor Pedro de Zayas from Ubeta, which are completed above with those of San Pedro and San Pablo, works from the 18th century. Part of the old high stalls (16th century), carved by Blas Briñón according to the conditions of Andrés de Vandelvira, and the low one (18th century). Interesting are the collateral baroque altarpieces in the main chapel. The great gate, which separates the central space or rotunda from the rest of the nave, sits on the marble capitals of the courtyard of the nearby palace of Cobos and is one of the most relevant examples of Spanish grille, its execution being attributed to Francisco Martínez and Francisco de Villalpando; It is dated 1555, the year of consecration of this splendid funerary temple.