The purity of Renaissance lines is best expressed in this famous chapel, built between 1536 and 1559. The first of many works executed in Úbeda by Andrés de Vandelvira, it was commissioned by Francisco de los Cobos y Molina as his family's funerary chapel. Its main facade is a preeminent example of plateresque style, with an orgy of classical sculpture depicting Greek gods on the underside of the arch – a Renaissance touch that would have been inconceivable a few decades earlier.
Numerous skulls scattered among the facade's decoration are a reminder that the building is a funerary chapel.
Inside the chapel, the Capilla Mayor is suffused in golden light beneath a stately dome painted in gold, blue and red, and features a grand 1560s altarpiece sculpture of the transfiguration by Alonso de Berruguete. The chapel is still privately owned by the Seville-based ducal Medinaceli family, descendants of the Cobos.
Next to the chapel stands what was originally its chaplain's house, the Palacio del Deán Ortega – another Vandelvira creation. The mansion is now Úbeda’s luxurious parador hotel .
