Iglesia de Santa Maria La Mayor - Alcalá la Real
The church, also known as the Iglesia Abacial, is situated inside a high fortified enclosure, where in Islamic times there was a model Muslim medina with commercial and residential areas. After the re-conquest, King Alfonso XI ordered the razing of the mosque and the construction of a church on the site, dependent on the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Toledo and with a domain extending over a vast territory. Its first Headquarters was a primitive Renaissance Gothic-style temple remodeled after the capture of Granada. Its reconstruction began in the second quarter of the sixteenth century according to the plans of Martín de Bolívar, and its Gothic structure of star-shaped vaults is covered with plateresque decoration. In this sector, the funerary chapels are conceived as monumental plateresque doorways, as are the access arches to the Baptistery. The rest of the church is the result of transformations carried out in the sixteenth century by Ambrosio de Vico; later, the masters Luis González and Fray Cristóbal de San José added a great triumphal trio of identical arches; while the Sacristy, attached to the temple, was made by Ginés Martín de Aranda in the seventeenth century. As a testimony of the primitive church, only the Chapel of Deán Cherinos remains standing. Its Baptismal Chapel is very notable, with a double Renaissance façade and coffered vault, which some authors attribute to Jacobo Florentino, a notable architect of Italian origin who worked in the areas of Granada and Murcia at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The temple remained in a state of solitude at the end of the eighteenth century as the city had been consolidated and spread across the plain for more than two centuries, as well as owing to the fire caused by the French troops in their flight from the city after its occupation in 1810, putting an end to its activity and part of the building. Declared an Asset of Cultural Interest in 1931.
Location
Located on Camino San Bartolomé.