A Jacobite Gazetteer - Spain

Loeches

The town of Loeches is located about 20 km east of Madrid. In the Plaza de la Duquesa de Alba is the Monasterio de la Inmaculada Concepción (Monastery of the Immaculate Conception).

Monasterio de la Inmaculada Concepción
Monasterio de la Inmaculada Concepción

In 1909 Don Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart y Falcó, 10th Duke of Berwick, established here a family funereal chapel, designed by Juan Bautista Lázaro. Along the walls are a series of black marble sarcophagi with gilt bronze inscriptions.

Panteon Familiar
Funereal Chapel of the Dukes of Berwick
 
Panteon Familiar
Funereal Chapel of the Dukes of Berwick

Among those buried in the chapel are the following: 1

  • Don Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart y Ventimiglia, 8th Duke of Berwick, and his wife, Doña María Francisca Portocarrero Palafox y KirkPatrick
  • Don Carlos Fitz-James Stuart y Portocarrero, 9th Duke of Berwick, and his wife, Doña Rosario Falcó y Osorio
  • Don Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart y Falcó, 10th Duke of Berwick, and his wife, Doña Rosario de Silva y Gurtubay
  • Don Hernando Alfonso Fitz-James Stuart y Saavedra, 11th Duke of Berwick
  • Doña Sol Fitz-James Stuart y Falcó, Countess of Baños (daughter of the 9th Duke of Berwick)
  • Doña Rosario Gurtubay y Gonzalez de Castejón, Duchess of Híjar (mother-in-law of the 10th Duke of Berwick)
  • Don Luis Martinez de Irujo y Artacoz and Don Jesús Aguirre y Ortiz de Zarate (both sons-in-law of the 10th Duke of Berwick)
Sarcophagus of the 9th Duke of Berwick
Sarcophagus of the 9th Duke of Berwick

In the middle of the chapel is the white marble tomb monument of the wife of the 8th Duke of Berwick; it was designed by Jean Baptiste Auguste Clésinger.2

Tomb of Francisca, Duchess of Berwick
Tomb of Francisca, Duchess of Berwick

Notes

1 "Casa Duques de Alba", http://www.fuenterrebollo.com/Heraldica-Piedra/casa-alba.html.

2 Clésinger was born in 1814 in Besançon, and died in 1883 in Paris.

Image 1 (Monasterio de la Inmaculada Concepción): M. Peinado, http://www.flickr.com/photos/mpeinadopa/2408291018/

Image 2 (Pantheon of the Dukes of Berwick): http://www.terra.es/personal4/historialoeches/monasterio.htm.

Image 3 (Sarcophagus of the 9th Duke of Berwick): http://www.pueblos-espana.org/comunidad+de+madrid/madrid/loeches/Duque+de+Alba/.

Image 4 (Tomb of Francisca, Duchess of Berwick): http://www.pueblos-espana.org/comunidad+de+madrid/madrid/loeches/Duque+de+Alba/.
This page is maintained by Noel S. McFerran (noel.mcferran@rogers.com) and was last updated June 26, 2010.
© Noel S. McFerran 2009-2010.