Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación

Plaza de Andalucía, 13,. 0, Campillo de Arenas How to get

On the site designated for this purpose, 120 feet long and the same wide, the Parish Church was built in the place occupied by a small chapel dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament. The construction contract is dated March 24, 1579.

The project is carried out by Mr. Manuel Sancho Sánchez, a stonemason master, commissioning the construction to a great bricklayer named Mr. Benito el Santo. The conditions are established, among which are the performance of two arc dances to separate the three naves of the temple, each dance having three arches, resulting in a total of nine sections. The main portal and the bell tower were in charge of the stonemason master Mr. Manuel Sancho Sánchez. The construction of the church had to be finished provisionally to be able to celebrate the Holy Offices. In 1618 the Main Altarpiece was built, it was destroyed in the Spanish Civil War, it occupied the entire front of the presbytery raised on a pedestal with reliefs on two very high floors, It was finished off with an attic finished in a broken pediment with a tympanum where the figure of the Eternal Father was holding the world sphere in his right hand. Both floors and the attic marked three streets, the central one being wider than the lateral ones and separated by paired Corinthian columns and advanced on the general plan of the altarpiece. Reliefs with scenes from the life of Jesus Christ and the Virgin were framed in the side streets . The central street was occupied by a large Tabernacle-manifestator on the second floor, a relief with the mystery of the Incarnation. The attic was presided over by a Calvary with figures of the Crucified Christ, the Virgin Ruins of a glorious past in and Saint John. The figure of the Eternal Father, closed the whole complex that also had sculptures of Saints on the capitals and cornices. The side streets were finished off with shields of Bishop D. Baltasar de Moscoso y Sandoval who ruled the Diocese in 1618. Its style was Renaissance transition to Baroque, and it was decorated with elements typical of the time, but without too many ornaments. The presbytery was completed on its side walls, with two large paintings painted in oil. The organ was placed in the choir in the middle of the 18th century. The bells were installed in 1858. On the facade of the tower that overlooks the main square and under the main bell, if he installed in 1906, a period clock with a dial in Roman numerals, paid for by the Temple Repair Board and granted to the City Council for its conservation; It is the so-called "round system" with a compensating pendulum. It was acquired from D. Lorenzo Redondo, a resident of Cuenca. It had a hammer that struck the hours on the bell. In the 1980s, the clock machinery was canceled and an electronic device was put in its place to continue marking the hours and chimes. In 1996, the old machinery was removed , is restored and is currently in an exhibitor in the Plenary Hall of the City Council.