Lugares de interés en Almonaster la Real

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POI

Mosque of Almonaster La Real

The Mosque of Almonaster is located at the top of the hill that crowns the Castle. It is an exceptional testimony of the first Islamic works in Spain. A small and sober building, erected during the reign of Abd al-Rahman III, but endowed with the subtle elegance of the Umayyad period. It must have been built in the late ninth or early tenth century. By the remains reused in its construction it is possible to think that, in Roman times, there was a monumental building that was later transformed into a Visigothic-Christian church, subsisting with monastic character until the Muslim invasion. Numerous columns and Roman capitals and ashlars from the 1st and 2nd centuries, as well as very interesting Visigothic vestiges from the 5th to the 7th centuries, are silent witnesses of this reuse. Following the canons of the Caliphate period, the Mosque has two clearly defined spaces: the shan or open courtyard for ablutions and the haram, the covered prayer hall. The oratory is composed of five naves facing the qibla wall whose brick arcades, originally horseshoe-shaped, rest on columns and pillars of different materials, sizes and periods (carrying material). In the construction materials, masonry and the Toledo style predominate, although brick also appears and, in some areas, tapial or corners of large granite ashlars. In the center of the qibla is the mihra b, cubic-circular in plan, covered with an oven vault; a brick alfiz frames the front horseshoe arch. The minaret, that still conserves in its initial part the stairway that circulates on the central machon, completes the Islamic building. When the Christians occupied these lands, back in the 13th century, an apse was built, possibly Romanesque, of which only the starts of the triumphal arch remain embedded in those of the current arch, converting the building to Christian worship under the name of Ermita de Nuestra Señora de la Concepción (Chapel of Our Lady of the Conception). At the end of the 15th century or beginning of the 16th century, the mosque underwent a series of important works that remodeled part of its structure and added new spaces: the arches immediately next to the qibla were cut back, although some still retained horseshoe starts; the qibl a wall was reinforced, adding a stirrup; the mihrab was reformed and the mosque was enlarged by raising the portico and perhaps the cistern; all within a Mudejar style (segmental and segmental arches, clean brick) related to the Sevillian style. In the 16th century the bell tower was built and the sacristy and the porch were carved, in addition to adding certain decorative details such as the tiles that adorn the entrance step to the presbytery. Later works, already in the 18th century, are the transformation of the top of the tower, the construction of the "Moorish room" and the decoration of the dome of the apse. Neither the vicissitudes of the passage of time nor the attacks of nature have been able to destroy this unique monument, emblem of Almonaster and origin and destination of cultures. Each era imposed its stamp and of each era we have the memory patent in its old stones surviving in our days as a true melting pot of cultures, synthesis of the entire history of this town.

POI

El Castillo

In the IX century, the iqlim of Al-Munastyr was the most important town in the region, head of a military and fiscal district. It was surrounded and protected by a walled fence, inside which was the medina, the aljama and, possibly, its fortress of which no trace remains. The current plan of the walled enclosure is an irregular polygon, with a surface area of about 80 areas and a perimeter of 313 m., articulated by walls of different heights, with rectangular and circular towers at the corners and in the middle of the longest sections. Its construction reveals several constructive stages: the oldest can be traced back to the Caliphate period and its walls are made of masonry reinforced with Roman ashlars at the corners; important interventions from the Almohad period can also be observed in the red earthen rammed earth sections; finally, there is masonry from the medieval Christian period. In 1479, with the signing of the Treaty of Alcobendas, the defensive interest of the fortress decreased and the Archbishopric of Seville stopped paying attention to its conservation and maintenance. In 1583, it was valued at 14,000 ducats and there was talk of its poor condition. Finally, in the 19th century, materials from its fence were used to build a bullring over the old parade ground.

POI

Gothic Mudejar Church

The Ermita de la Concepción, located in the old mosque, became too small for worship services, which made it necessary to build a new church for the town. The new church was built in an enclave relatively far from the castle, which would become a nucleus around which the urban expansion of the town would be agglutinated. The temple, of great constructive complexity, is considered a unique monument of the Archdiocese of Seville, due to the type of pointed barrel vault used in its three naves and the uniqueness of the Portada del Perdón. Construction may have begun at the beginning of the 14th century, according to the Mudejar style. Later, throughout the 15th century, it was completed with a series of works, well fitted into the previous ones, among which the Gospel and Epistle doors framed by abutments and alfiz stand out. In the first third of the 16th century the choir, the tower and the Door of Forgiveness were built, the latter being an element of evident stylistic singularity in the religious architecture of the whole area. The Portada is a magnificent example of the Portuguese Manueline style, characteristic of the rural churches of the Alentejo. It must have been erected around 1530, since the coat of arms that crowns it, according to Professor Pérez Embid, belonged to Cardinal Don Alonso Manrique de Lara, Archbishop of the See of Seville from 1524 to 1538. It is built with local limestone. A great arch framed by two pinnacles, shelters another ogee arch that gives entrance to the temple. Its design and central decoration with themes associated with both Manueline and Gothic tropical vegetation, marine motifs, animals fighting, anthropomorphic beings, etc., stand out. At the beginning of the XVII century, the small mannerist doorway that gives access to the sacristy was built and in the same century, the current Tabernacle. The earthquake of 1755 significantly affected the building, which was restored by the architect Pedro de Silva.

POI

Hermitage of Santa Eulalia

It is one of the few Roman buildings that we can see in Huelva, as the three walls of the apse are those of a mausoleum of imperial times, probably built in the first half of the first century AD and, in its day, must have had a similar appearance to that of the Tower of the Scipiones in Tarragona. The hermitage was erected in the mid-fifteenth century, is located about 20 km from Almonaster and is a beautiful example of the religious-rural architecture of the time. Its interior is decorated with fresco murals dating from the late fifteenth century. The historical-artistic complex is completed by an old bullfighting ring, of ancient and stony architecture, of which there is documented news, at least, since 1678. Its morphology is framed in the scope of the churches of transverse arches of the mountain range. Access to the hermitage is through a baroque porch of mixtilinear arches that extends along the sides of the building. Of this stage, S. XVIII, would also be the belfry of two bodies and the sacristy. In the ends of the apse there are a series of mural paintings from the end of the 15th century or beginning of the 16th century, within the late Gothic period. The hermitage of Santa Eulalia has become, since 1606, the center of celebration of the pilgrimage in honor of the saint, the oldest in Spain. Thousands of pilgrims from all over the Sierra and other parts of the national geography, come every third weekend of May to the place, to participate in one of the most historic and traditional festivals of the whole region. The Hermitage and its surroundings, including the old bullring, has been declared an Asset of Cultural Interest within the cataloging of Archaeological Zone. The site consists of an area of Roman habitat, linked to mining, one to the south of the Hermitage and another to the north (the latter with obvious signs of metallurgical activity) and the remains of the necropolis around the hermitage.

POI

D. Manuel Vázquez Vargas Museum

Collection of paintings and sculptures bequeathed by Don Manuel Vázquez, which includes works from the Baroque and Romanticism periods and some modernist works by artists such as the well-known Italian painter Lucas Jordán, the Spanish painter Francisco Jover y Casanova, the sculptor Pablo Serrano Aguilar, the Catalan Miguel Senserrich, Ramón Garrido, a Spanish architect and sculptor, among others.

POI

Hermitage of the Lord

This small shrine of the Lord - Santísimo Cristo de la Humildad y Paciencia - whose image fulfilled the role of "Cristo del Buen Viaje", is located at the exit of the town, next to the old road to Cortegana. With a rectangular floor plan, it consists of a nave formed by two sections of vaulted vault and a small sacristy covered by a pair of groin vaults. The building, very simple, with a gable roof, shows two constructive stages: the oldest, which would correspond to the nave and the altarpiece, details between 1640 and 1684; and the work of the sacristy, after that time. The most recent part is the gable. It includes a belfry from the 19th century.

POI

Chapel of the Holy Trinity

It is a small baroque building, from the end of the 18th century, located in the Town Hall Square. The church, as can be seen in its irregular floor plan, follows the physical indications of the site on which it sits, arranging its spaces in a somewhat arbitrary manner. In a single nave there is a sacristy with a square floor plan, covered with groin vaults, and the presbytery, with a trapezoidal floor plan and closed by a longitudinal barrel vault with lunettes. A small pulpit and an elevated choir complete the chapel. The illumination is provided by two tetralobulated oculi and the entire interior is whitewashed down to the smallest detail, which gives the building an architectural purity hardly detectable in other baroque buildings. Among other characteristics, the slenderness of this small chapel stands out. The decoration of the interior is reduced to some holy water basins and several panelled doors. The entrance opening is covered by a lobed arch and is framed by the Tuscan pilasters of the doorway. It consists of an architrave and a dismembered frieze, cornice and broken pediment whose tympanum houses a tile framed by baroque cutouts. The doorway is completed by pinnacles, typical of the late 18th century, and a little higher up is one of the aforementioned oculi that give light to the choir. The belfry, with two sections of the same composition, is decorated with Tuscan pilasters, semicircular arches and above them a cornice, Doric in the first and Tuscan in the second. It is crowned by a weathervane and four ceramic finials.

POI

Popular architecture

Almonaster preserves a rich and varied catalog of buildings, making it one of the most interesting urban complexes in the region. Modest and stately buildings, from different periods and styles (with Gothic, Mudejar, Renaissance and other more modern elements) coexist in perfect urban harmony, set in the set. The Mudejar houses of the medieval period are characterized by their structural and decorative simplicity, in contrast to those of the 18th century built on large plots of land that usually include courtyards and backyards. On the main facades, there are usually doorways with popularly interpreted constructive and ornamental elements, such as columns on pedestals or semipilastras, crowned by a classical entablature with its architrave, frieze and cornice. Also of interest are houses from the second half of the 19th century and early 20th century, easily identifiable by their privileged position in the urban fabric, their verticality -with two or three stories-, their warm colors and the skylights and chimneys of Portuguese origin. They are usually built on corners, giving rise to two or three facades that appear extended above the roofs, hiding the hipped roof. Finally, reference should be made to the Palace House of D. Miguel Tenorio de Castilla (19th century), a Spanish politician and diplomat born in the town of Almonaster la Real, personal secretary to Queen Isabel II of Spain for seven years.

POI

Access bridge to the old Tannery

The bridge is a medieval monument of ancient Roman factory through which runs one of the branches of the Roman Via Julia. The bridge leads to the Antigua Tenería (Old Tannery), an interesting pre-industrial complex dating from 1806. In its day it also housed a mill. It has a rectangular floor plan and around the courtyards there are two-story warehouses with lowered brick arches. The façade is decorated in neoclassical style.

POI

Bullring

It is a circular plaza, with an inner diameter of 32 meters, with a capacity of over 1200 spectators. Category: 3rd. The Plaza de Toros de Almonaster la Real is located on the top of a hill, within the walled enclosure, next to the mosque. Erected on the old parade ground of the fortress and built using masonry from the walled fence and the buildings that existed inside, is the third bullring of those existing in Almonaster (along with those of Santa Eulalia (S. XVII) and the remains of the S. Cristobal. Cristobal. The Plaza de Toros was inaugurated in 1821 and reformed seventy years later, being Fernando El Gallo - creator of the famous bullfighting dynasty - who fought the first bullfight of this era. Recently, a restoration work has fully integrated it into the rest of the Historical Ensemble of the Mosque. Currently, in addition to its own functionality, it is a cultural space of great value for the people of Almonaster, since different activities take place there during the Islamic Culture Days, as well as being a stage for concerts, theaters and weddings, among others.

POI

Concejo Fountain

It is located at the exit of the town next to the popular Cruz de la Fuente and consists of a basin, trough and uncovered sinks. On the main spout, there is a white marble shield with the royal arms and the inscription with the date of completion of the work: "in the year 1701, the Cabildo of this town did this work at the expense of its neighbors". The present appearance is due to the restoration works at the end of the 19th century.

POI

La Era de la Cuesta

After crossing the Puente de la Tenería and following the cobblestone path, we begin to climb a slope that makes us cross the road that leads to the village of La Escalada. We continue uphill for another minute and there it is: La Era de la Cuesta. The threshing floors used to be paved and were usually built in high places, to take advantage of the gentle and constant winds, which facilitated the work of ventar or separate the grain from the straw, once the threshing was finished with "the beasts". From this height, the views of the mosque are unbeatable and we see how the village of Almonaster is nothing more than a small shelter immersed in the beautiful nature that surrounds it. But the Era de la Cuesta is not only this privileged viewpoint, it is also a place steeped in tradition. It is here where the butler and the butler meet during the ritual of El Romero in the celebrated Cruces de Mayo of Almonaster La Real.

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