Zamora Office

This facility, where the Castilian comuneros once gathered, also served as quarters for French troops, who inflicted irreparable damage to its structure.

The definitive closure of the convent occurred in the 1830s.

The headquarters comprises two distinct areas: the historical architectural part and the newly constructed part.

• The historical section is limited to the architectural remains of the convent church's head: a 16th-century apse, late 15th and early 16th-century lateral chapels of Ocampo and Escalante, and a funerary chapel (Dean's Chapel) by Gil de Hontañón, with a small inner chapel from the early 16th century. There are also remnants of the old cloister and the old cellar, dating back to the early 17th century. 
• The newly constructed area is a splendid example of modern Spanish architecture. It features newly created spaces clad in corten steel, housing a cafeteria, classrooms, residence, and library.

"The proposal for the creation of the Rei Afonso Henriques Foundation within this collection of Gothic ruins is simple: to enhance the mysterious beauty of the incomplete, which evokes past times from the undeniable plastic capacity of ruin, and to articulate, with subtle volumes, a sequence of spaces that respond to a program. This idea, together with the trace of what was the convent complex, the privileged views of the river and the city of Zamora, lead to the adopted solution: an 'L'-shaped building, which delimits the former void of the Church and divides the space into two: a publicly accessible garden, previously occupied by three naves of the Church, and another that occupies the position of the former convent's first cloister."

(Manuel de las Casas)

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Construction:

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Interiors: