Alcala de Henares

Alcalá de Henares , town (1990 pop. 155,548), Madrid prov., central Spain, on the Henares River. Chemicals, plastics, electrical appliances, leather, and china are produced in the town. Once surrounded by wheat fields, an auto route has drawn it into the suburban orbit of Madrid. Called Complutum in Roman times, the town is triply famous as the former seat of a great university founded in 1508 and transferred in 1836 to Madrid, as the birthplace of Ferdinand I, Katherine of Aragón, and Cervantes, and as the scene of the Cortes in which Alfonso XI promulgated the Ordenamiento de Alcalá. The town was severely damaged in the Spanish civil war. Among the landmarks are a Gothic collegiate church and the former archiepiscopal palace. The Univ. of Alcalá de Henares was founded in 1977.

Ordóñez, Bartolomé (b Burgos, c.1485; d Carrara, 5/10 Dec. 1520). Spanish sculptor, active mainly in Barcelona. On stylistic grounds, he is presumed to have trained in Florence, perhaps with Andrea Sansovino, and he was certainly in Italy in 1517–18 and 1520. His main work there is the marble altarpiece of the Caracciolo Chapel in the church of S. Giovanni a Carbonara, Naples, where he perhaps worked in collaboration with Diego de Siloé (there is evidence that the altarpiece was made c.1515, but some authorities connect it with Ordóñez's visit to Italy in 1517–18). By 1519 he was working on the decoration of the choir stalls in Barcelona Cathedral, and in the same year he began work on two tombs—that of Philip I and Joanna of Castille (Chapel Royal, Granada) and that of Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros (S. Ildefonso, Alcalá de Henares). He died at Carrara (see marble) in Italy before these were finished, but his will indicates that he had completed major parts, including the effigies of Philip and Joanna. Although he died young, his elegant and imaginative work played an important role in introducing the High Renaissance style to Spain.