The earliest phase of Renaissance architecture in Spain is usually called the Plateresque (from platero, “silversmith”) because its rich ornament resembles silversmith’s work. There has always been a long tradition in Spain of elaborate decoration, explained in part as an influence from Moorish art. The Moors possessed almost all of Spain during the Middle Ages and left this decorative heritage to the Spaniards. During the early 16th century, minor northern Italian sculptors and artisans, particularly from Lombardy and Genoa, were imported into Spain to execute tombs and altars for the Spanish nobles and ecclesiastics. These artisans introduced the northern Italian Renaissance vocabulary of Classical decoration, such as the pilaster paneled with arabesques or the candelabrum shaft. Spanish architects picked up these elements and applied them to their buildings.

The Renaissance Plateresque style is purely one of architectural ornament. There was no change in structure; heavy walls were used with either Gothic ribbed vaults or intricately carved wooden ceilings (artesando) that indicated Moorish influence. Many of the elements of decoration also preserved the influence of Gothic and Moorish art, such as the Flamboyant Gothic pinnacle and pierced balustrade or coats of arms and bits of heraldry used as ornamental motifs. Richly coloured tiles created decorative patterns on the walls as in Moorish art. The richness of the Classical decoration imported from northern Italy blended effectively with the elements of the Moorish and Flamboyant Gothic styles to form the new Plateresque style. The luxuriance of its ornament was a fitting expression of the splendour-loving culture that Spain developed as the wealth of the Americas began to pour in during the early 16th century.

In most cases the new Plateresque decoration was confined to rich spots or panels of ornament around the portals and windows of the buildings. These ornamental areas were relieved by large expanses of bare wall, as in the facade of the Royal Hospital at Santiago de Compostela (1501–11) by Enrique de Egas or his Santa Cruz Hospital at Toledo (1504–14).

The greatest centre of the Plateresque style was the town of Salamanca, with buildings such as the university (about 1516–29) and the Monterey Palace (1539). Perhaps the most outstanding example of the style is the Ayuntamiento, or town hall, of Sevilla (Seville) (begun 1527) by Diego de Riaño, with Lombard paneled pilasters on the ground floor and half columns completely covered with relief sculpture on the second floor. Also in the Lombard manner are the numerous medallions spotted over the wall under the windows or between the pilasters.

Classical

Although the exuberant Plateresque style lingered in some regions until about 1560, it was soon superseded by a much more Classical style, which appeared in 1526 in the Palace of Charles V within the Alhambra at Granada. The Palace of Charles V was the first Italian Classical building in Spain, in contrast to Plateresque buildings that were Classical only in terms of a few elements of Italian Renaissance decoration. Charles V, as king of Spain and Holy Roman emperor, was the most powerful political figure in Europe, dominating Italy, as well as Spain, the Low Countries, and Austria. His palace in the Alhambra reflected the increasing contact with Italy. Designed by the Spaniard Pedro Machuca, who had studied in Italy, the Palace of Charles V was never completed, although work on it continued throughout most of the 16th century. The palace is square in plan with a huge central circular court (100 feet [30 metres] in diameter), which was intended for bullfights and tournaments. The plan is, therefore, fully Renaissance, being centralized and symmetrical; it is organized on cross-axes formed by the four entrances, one in the centre of each side. The facade shows a full understanding of the principles of Italian Renaissance design in its superimposition of orders and in the alternating rhythm of the triangular and segmental pediments above the windows of the second story. The interior court is surrounded by a colonnade with a similar superimposition of Doric and Ionic.

Herreran

The classicism of the Palace of Charles V was succeeded by an extremely austere and cold style named after the greatest Spanish architect of the 16th century, Juan de Herrera. Perhaps more important than the architect was the social and cultural atmosphere in which the Herreran style developed, from about 1560 to the end of the 16th century. Charles V had been a true Renaissance prince; his only son, Philip II, who came to the throne in 1556, was one of the most typical representatives of the age of Mannerism as it was manifested in Spain. Philip II was morbid and melancholic, a religious fanatic against whose strict rule the Low Countries soon rose in revolt, beginning the difficulties that gradually dispelled Spanish political and cultural power in Europe.

The finest example of the Herreran style illustrates clearly the change in cultural atmosphere under Philip II. This is the palace-monastery of El Escorial (1563–84), which Philip II had built as a retreat outside Madrid. It is a great contrast to the worldly Palace of Charles V with its tournament court set in the luxurious, sensuous Alhambra. El Escorial was more than a royal palace, as it also contained provisions for a monastery and college. A city in itself, El Escorial was planned as a tremendous rectangle (675 by 525 feet [205 by 160 metres]), with a large church at the centre.

El Escorial was begun by the architect Juan Bautista de Toledo, who may be responsible for the planning, but the execution and architectural style were that of his assistant and successor, Herrera. Philip II himself reviewed the drawings for the palace, removing anything ornamental or ostentatious. On the exterior the architecture is very simple—a plain wall with a monotonous series of unadorned windows expressing the general monastic character of the whole. The only segment of the Classical Renaissance style on the exterior is at the central portal with two stories of giant Doric half columns supporting a triangular pediment. The church, at the centre of the complex, has two bell towers and a great dome set on a drum, which surmount the whole. The austerity is enhanced by the cold, gray granite of which El Escorial was built. On the interior a similar severity of manner is indicated by the lack of decoration. Except for the Classical Doric order, which is the least ornamental of the orders, there is no architectural decoration. Plain arches of stone were used under the vaults without any coffering. Occasional raised panels on the wall surface suggest where Plateresque ornament would normally be located, but instead of relief sculpture, there are only starkly smooth panels. Even the Doric order was handled severely; the pilasters on the interior show no entasis (i.e., an upward taper of the width of the pilaster to give a sense of lightness and to relieve the strict verticals). El Escorial is impressive in its size and mass and in the consistency of its austerity, but it has a forbidding quality that no other building can match. Other examples of Herrera’s design are the cathedral of Valladolid (begun 1585, completed in the 18th century) and the court of the Lonja, or Exchange (1582–99), of Sevilla.