This seminary was founded in the late 16th century by Juan de Ribera, a towering Counter-Reformation figure who wielded enormous spiritual and temporal power in Spain and beyond. With an impressive if austere Renaissance courtyard-cloister, its main attraction is a small but excellent religious-art museum. El Greco and locals José de Ribera, Juan de Juanes and Pedro Orrente are represented, plus paintings from Caravaggio's workshop. Most surprising is the manuscript Thomas More was writing while awaiting execution in the Tower of London.
The downstairs chapel is worth a look for its fine late-15th-century Flemish tapestries. The adjacent church has some high-quality Renaissance frescoes, and a stuffed caiman, Lepanto, in its anteroom.
