Iglesia Parroquial de Nuestra Señora de la Natividad

Monument

Calle Iglesia, 0. 23658, Jamilena How to get

It was built in the second half of the 16th century at the express wish of Emperor Carlos V. The plans were made in 1559 by no less than Francisco del Castillo "El Mozo", the prestigious Italian-trained architect, who directed the works until his death. after which his brother Benito was in charge of continuing them. The factory advanced slowly due to the lack of economic resources and in 1600 it was not yet completed. The temple was built, as established by the customs of the Order of Calatrava, on the place occupied by the old hermitage of Nuestra Señora de la Estrella, and again it had to remain under the name and protection of the Virgin. With a single nave, with a rectangular floor plan and a box structure, which was covered by a false barrel vault and wood, it has niche chapels on its sides, opened by semicircular arches, to house small altars. The dome near the presbytery preserves 17th century paintings on its pendentives, while those that can be seen on the intrados are from the second half of the 20th century.

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On the outside it exhibits commendable dignity and uniqueness despite constructive simplicity and budget constraints. The main portal rises on a small staircase and is emphasized by the bell tower of the church, on which it is curiously located in its first body. Its arrangement is, however, the traditional one: semicircular arch with fillets in the imposts, framed by symmetrically modulated Corinthian columns that rise on pedestals that, in turn, give depth perspective to the portal and support the entablature, whose frieze contains an epigraphic text. It is finished off by a triangular pediment with a projection supported by corbels. The most significant thing, without a doubt, is the mannerist bucranium of the second body of the tower, a kind of ornamental mask with garlands, inspired by Serlio's drawings, which clearly denotes the authorship of Francisco del Castillo. The third body houses the bells and ends in the shape of a spire. It has another portal on a masonry wall, sparsely decorated, on the west side, with attached pilasters and a semicircular arch with a triangular pediment. Repeat the scheme in a second body, on a small scale, to house a niche with the stone image of the Virgin. The church was declared a Site of Cultural Interest in 1994.