Iglesia Parroquial de Santo Domingo

Calle Jesus Castillo Solis, 9,. 23540, Torres

Monument included in the Artistic Historical Complex. Started on 07/09/82. The parish church of Santo Domingo, located at one end of the urban area, stands on a strong architecture made up of eight arches that serve as a counter to its foundation on the side facing a wide valley, which it dominates gracefully. On the outside, with its totally whitewashed factory, it projects us an image of an eminently popular temple, oblivious to the formulas of cultured architecture. The interior, however, presents sufficient elements to consider its architecture within the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, although certainly heavily intervened for various causes and circumstances during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. To Mª. J. Sánchez Lozano we owe some information about its construction process.

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The primitive church had to be small for the Council to take an agreement to widen and lengthen it, as stated in the Act of the Cabildo of November 11, 1545: "Attention to the need that the church and temple be enlarged and enlarged ca seen that the people who attend the good offices at the said church do not take inside it (...) ”. These works should not have solved the problems, and already by the year 1564 the Council decided to build a new temple according to the plans of Andrés de Vandelvira, major master of the factory of the Cathedral of Jaén and also director of the parochial factories of the Diocese. The agreement is reflected in the Town Council Act of January 6, 1564: “That another church be built and built again that is wider and in a better place because the one that is presently and is very narrow and partly laborious (.. .) The new church will be built where it seems better that it should be made healthier (...) and Andres de Vandelvira, master builder of this bishopric (...) ”will draw it.

Neither exterior nor interior structures are preserved at first glance that remind us of Vandelvirian architecture, largely due to the aforementioned radical interventions carried out in the temple, which continued to conserve its original location. A more detailed analysis of its factory and an inspection of hidden areas provide us with certain architectural elements that can support Vandelvira's partition in the works, such as the remains of continuous entablatures preserved between the roof or roof and the current vaults. It is conceivable that due to its unique arrangement, exposed to the storms and winds, that church suffered a serious setback in its original architecture, which, after strong restorations or modifications, was concealed or integrated into the one we currently contemplate.

In any case, certain works were carried out in the temple in the year 1587: staircase of the tower, general plastering, repairs on the roof. At the end of the seventeenth century, according to Professor Galera Andreu, the master Francisco Landeras made a modest belfry, which is not the one currently preserved, as it is the result of works from the nineteenth century. In 1837, according to the report by Juan Tuñón, Baeza's master of public works, it was necessary to reinforce the ashlar masonry on the west side, fix the corner on the midday side, and do the entire roof. Years later, specifically on January 26, 1860, Antonio López, master builder of the Cathedral of Baeza, made another report, in which various damage to the walls, sills of the choir ship, straps of the roof truss are specified. , roof of the sacristy; Regarding the bell tower, it says: “The bell tower needs to be done again from its plant (...) due to the construction of said bell tower, which will be six and a half yards wide and a quarter and a quarter high (. ..) its cost is eleven thousand two hundred and eighty reais ”.

The conditions are also inserted: that the thickness of the walls of the bell tower will be one and a half quarter square, and its brick and mortar factory. Around 1866, the architect José María Cuenca, specified that the building was in very bad condition, although some works had already been carried out. In 1876 there is evidence of new payments for works (among them the general whitewashing of the temple, the fees for the direction of the architect Vicente Serrano Salaberri, etc.), which amounted to 26,000 reales.

All these works, plus the necessary and continuous general maintenance, have determined its current configuration: a hall church with three naves, with central vaulted vaults and half-barrel vaults on the sides. Special mention should be made of the 17th century arches that flank the presbytery, with simple classicist altars crowned with the coats of arms of the Sánchez Barrionuevo family.

OTHER NON-ARCHITECTURAL ARTISTIC MANIFESTATIONS

In the lateral chapels of the transept, the shields of the Sánchez Barrionuevo family (17th century) are preserved, painted in tempera on plaster. The paintings of the procession of disciples of the Cristo de la Veracruz are interesting. The most valuable piece is its Mudejar baptismal font, made of green glazed ceramics with a Gothic inscription between rope moldings, which is closely related to that of the church of Bartolomé de Jaén. The baptismal font (1750) is interesting, decorated with a coiled serpent.