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.